Anthropology Courses

INTRODUCTORY COURSES

1010     Culture and the Human Experience (3) Introduction to the concept of culture as a framework for understanding similarities and differences in behavior and values in human societies.

*Fulfills Social/Behavioral Science Exploration (BF)

1020     Human Origins: Evolution and Diversity (3) Introduction to biological anthropology; surveys of hominid fossils, primate biology and behavior, human biological variation, ecology and adaptation, and evolutionary theory.

*Fulfills Physical/Life Science Exploration (SF)

1030     World Prehistory: An Introduction (3) Introduction to the two-million-year-old archaeological record of human prehistory.

*Fulfills Social/Behavioral Science Exploration (BF)

1050     The Evolution of Human Nature (3) An overview of the broad patterns of temporal and spatial variation in morphology and behavior among humans and our nearest relatives. Basic concepts and models in human evolutionary ecology are introduced.

*Fulfills Physical/Life Science Exploration (SF)

LOWER DIVISION ELECTIVE COURSES

(Only two 2000 level courses may be counted towards the major/minor requirements)

2017     In Search of Human Heritage (3) Explores apparent mysteries in human culture and society. Witchcraft, voodoo, cannibalism and other food customs, sex roles and sexuality, incest taboo, territoriality, aggression and warfare, notions of beauty, concepts of the bizarre, primitive thought and language, and other topics.

*Fulfills Social/Behavioral Science Exploration (BF)

2018     Human Universals (3) Although human beings vary enormously in their beliefs, values, and ways of life, some patterns are characteristic of all or nearly all people everywhere. To shed light on what is historically and cross-culturally universal, this course focuses on one or more basic dimensions of human experience, such as language, kinship, sexuality, violence, ethnicity, and religion.

*Fulfills Social/Behavioral Science Exploration (BF)

2020     Human Evolution (3) Modern humans like ourselves only appear within the last 100,000 to 50,000 years. This course will cover precursors to our species and the origin and dispersal of modern humans. Data will be drawn from paleoanthropology, archaeology, ethnography, and genetics. Evolutionary theory will provide the framework for understanding the data and for generating and testing hypotheses.

*Fulfills Physical/Life Science Exploration (SF)

2030     Archaeology (3) Our knowledge of variation in prehistoric human behavior is based virtually exclusively on archaeological analyses of the physical remains left behind by ancient peoples. This course reviews the history, goals, theories, and methods of archaeological research, especially as influenced by the natural sciences. Substantive examples are drawn from a diverse set of time periods and geographical locations.

*Fulfills Physical/Life Science Exploration (SF)

2031     The Rise of Civilization (3) Human society has changed drastically in the last 10,000 years. For 90 percent of our (pre)history humankind lived in small, egalitarian bands of hunter-gatherers. Since then, social groupings have grown larger and more economically and socially diverse. Why these changes have occurred is one of the great questions in anthropology and history. This class will explore the rise of complex societies, comparing early complex societies in the Old World and the New World.

*Fulfills Social/Behavioral Science Exploration (BF)

GEOGRAPHICAL COURSES – Limited summer offerings

3111     The First Nations of Eastern North America (3) Recommended Prerequisite: ANTH 1020 or 1030 or equivalent.  Meets with ANTH 6111. This course studies change and continuity in the cultures and histories of North America's First Nations in regions east of the Rocky Mountains from the fifteenth century to modern times.

*Fulfills Diversity (DV)

3112     The First Nations of Western North America (3) Meets with ANTH 6112. This course studies change and continuity in the cultures and histories of North America's First Nations in regions west of the Rocky Mountains from the fifteenth century until modern times.

*Fulfills Diversity (DV)

3121     Cultures of Africa (3) Meets with ANTH 6121. Cultures and societies of Africa, with emphasis less on national political issues than on immediate, daily concerns of most Africans (e.g., making a living, family life, settling disputes, etc.).

3131     Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East (3) Cross listed as MID E 3713.  Meets with ANTH 6131 and MID E 6713. The turmoil of Middle Eastern life has its roots in ideas and lifestyles developed over thousands of years. This course examines the land and people, analyzing the role of ethnicity, religion, politics, economics, and values in every day behavior.

3132     Traditional Jewish Communities (3) Cross listed as MID E 3723.  Meets with ANTH 6132 and MID E 6723. Examines the question "Who is a Jew?" by looking at Jewish life in Old World Jewish communities and Jewish interaction with the non-Jewish world. Explores implications for understanding contemporary Jewish attitudes and behaviors.

3133     Anthropology of Judaism (3) Cross listed as MID E 3733.  Meets with MID E 6733 and ANTH 6033. Applies anthropological theory and method regarding the relationship of religion and culture to a specific system of belief and practice: Judaism. Explores the spectrum of Jewish ritual and ideology, analyzing variant traditions and examining the potential for adaptation to changing circumstances.

3141     Himalayan Kingdoms (3) Meets with ANTH 6041. Concepts of caste, kingship, reincarnation, and enlightenment are introduced through the history of Hinduism and Buddhism in the Himalayas. Two small kingdoms, Nepal and Bhutan, offer a fascinating comparison of Hindu and Buddhist ways of life.

3142     Tibetan Civilization (3) Meets with ANTH 6142.  An introduction to the cultural and political history of Tibet, one of the world's great civilizations. Focuses on the evolution of Tibetan Buddhism and on Tibet's political relations with neighboring states, including India, Mongolia, and China.

3151  Peoples of the Pacific (3) Prerequisite: ANTH 1010. 
   Meets with ANTH 6151. Theories of settlement, distinctive features of island cultures, social and political organization and stratification, and integrative mechanisms such as trading, feasting, warfare, and marriage alliance.

3152     Australia and New Guinea Ethnography (3) Meets with ANTH 6152.  Continent of hunters, island of gardeners--sites of classic anthropological work. Prehistory and ethnography of Australia and New Guinea from 50,000 years ago to present. Ecology, economics, political and social organization, marriage systems, and religion.

3153     Black Atlantic: Anthropology of the African Diaspora (3) Anthropological perspective on people of African descent in the United States, Caribbean, Latin America, and South Africa. Begin by looking at the three sides of Atlantic slavery: Western Europe, West and Southern Africa, and slave societies of the New World and South Africa. Examine "maroon" societies founded by fugitive slaves, the threat of slave revolution in the age of American revolutions, and politics of racial categorization and stratification in the aftermath of slavery. Finally, we take a comparative approach to language, the family, sexuality, conflict and class, religion, arts and ideologies among these cultures.

3154     Brazilian Culture (3) An introduction to the culture of Brazil.  Consideration of Brazil as a multicultural society, comparing it to other major settler societies of the New World, including the U.S. and the rest of Latin America. We will consider Indian societies before and after contact, and we will compare slavery in the U.S. and Brazil. Why have race relations and definitions of race have developed differently in the two countries? We will look at authority, class, and violence. We will examine the culture of religion, sexuality, Carnival, music, and the media.

3211     Biology of Native Americans (3) Meets with ANTH 5211.  Origin, population history, child growth, health, anthropometry, demography, and genetics of North and South American Indians. Biological variation and adaptation of Native American groups in pre-contact era, biological effects of European contact, and subsequent biological responses to modernization.

3311     North American Prehistory (3) Meets with ANTH 5311.  Native Americans arrived on this continent 15,000 to 30,000 years ago. Initially hunter-gatherers, they subsequently developed agriculture and civilization independent of influence from the Old World; this course reviews the history of these developments.

3312     California Prehistory (3) Meets with ANTH 5312. With both extremely high diversity in environments and population densities, the archaeological record of California provides an ideal laboratory in which to evaluate hunter-gatherer variability. Proceeding chronologically, this course analyzes the record from an evolutionary ecological perspective.

3313     Utah Prehistory (3) Meets with ANTH 5313.  This course presents the prehistory of the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau as it is currently understood. A series of recent archaeological and paleoecological case studies will be used to examine current controversies and directions for future work.

3321     The Classic Maya (3) Meets with ANTH 5321.  Explores the rise and fall of Classic Maya society through archaeology, hieroglyphic inscriptions, and ethnohistoric documents. Examines Maya economy, social organization, religion, warfare, and explanations as to why this society was so dramatically transformed after the 9th century A.D.

3322     Mesoamerican Archaeology (3) Meets with ANTH 5322.  Surveys the rise of complex societies in Mesoamerica, focusing on the Olmecs, the Maya, Teotihuacan and the Aztecs. Explores differences between societies in tropical rainforest environments and the arid highlands. Considers the impact of the Spanish conquests on the societies of Mesoamerica.

3331     Pleistocene Archeology (3) Meets with ANTH 5331.  Reviews major problems in human evolution from an archaeological perspective. Focuses on the Old World Pleistocene, from 2.5 million to ten thousand years ago.

3961     Special Topics: Geographical Requirement (3) Meets with ANTH 5961.  Topics vary. These courses count for geographical requirements for the major. Repeatable for credit.

TOPICAL COURSES – Not offered in the summer

4123     Cultural Traditions of Asia (3) Prerequisite: Junior or Senior Standing.  Meets with ANTH 6123. An introduction to the peoples and cultures of Asia, with an emphasis on the religious traditions of India, southeast Asia, China, and Japan.

4124     Religion In Latin America (3) Prerequisite: Junior or Senior Standing.  Meets with ANTH 6124. A comparative anthropological look at the complex religious traditions and changes of Latin America, including Native American religions, African American religions, Catholicism, Protestantism, Pentecostalism, Para-Christian Movements (Mormonism, Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses), popular religion, and a range of new religious movements, as well as thinking about the religious and missionaries as social agents.

4130     The Anthropology of Food (3) Prerequisite: Junior or Senior Standing.  Meets with ANTH 6130. Explores the use of food for social, political, economic, religious and personal goals in different cultures and the impact of food related practices on health.

4133     Maternal and Child Health (3) Prerequisite: Junior or Senior Standing.  Meets with ANTH 6133. This course is about ecological constraints on female reproductive biology and child health. It focuses on how parenting behaviors have evolved over the course of human evolution. It investigates mammalian reproductive strategies, energetic costs of pregnancy and lactation, and cross-cultural variation in female fertility rates and child survival.

4134     Language, Thought and Culture: The Anthropology of the Human Mind (3) Meets with ANTH 6134. How does the mind shape culture? How does culture shape the mind? An introduction to language and symbolism, and to human concepts -- of space and time, of living things and supernatural beings, of mind and emotion -- across cultures.

4135     Symbolic Anthropology (3) Meets with ANTH 6135. This course offers an introduction to the ways of conceptualizing the world through symbols.

4138     Anthropology of Violence and Non-Violence (3) Prerequisite: Junior or Senior Standing.  Meets with ANTH 6138. Murder, war, capital punishment, human sacrifice: why people resort to violence, and how they avoid it, in societies ranging from tribunal New guinea to the modern United States.

4139     Native American Religions (3) Prerequisite: Junior or Senior Standing.  Meets with ANTH 6139. This course will examine the diverse beliefs and practices of Native American religions of North America. The dynamics of Native American religious change will be emphasized.

4141     Ethnicity and Nationalism (3) Prerequisite: Junior or Senior Standing.  Meets with ANTH 6141.  An introduction to theories of social identity, especially in modern nations and other plural societies. Among the questions to be considered are how ethnic and national identities are formed and why they so often provide a basis for violence and war.

4143     Anthropology of Mormonism (3) Prerequisite: Junior or Senior Standing.  Meets with ANTH 6143. An exploration of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the broader set of Mormon movements, as social and cultural institutions in comparison with other religions and social groups, from the perspectives of anthropology, as well as the issues and politics of native and local ethnography.

4161     History of Anthropology (3) Prerequisite: ANTH 1010.  Growth of anthropological knowledge and development of major ideas and methods, approached through biographies of leading figures.

4169     Ethnographic Methods (3) Prerequisite: Junior or Senior Standing.  Survey of ethnographic methods, including behavior observation, interviewing, and related techniques. Students will practice the methods through class exercises and an individual project.

4171     Myth, Magic, and Religion (3) Meets with ANTH 6171.  Searches for patterns and meaning in the variety of beliefs and practices found among societies, from simple to complex, which convention designates as "religion." Examines how even contemporary secular societies make decisions and behave within religion/magical constraints.

4181     Family, Power, and Society (3) Prerequisite: ANTH 1010.  Meets with ANTH 6181.  Variation of marriage, families, social inequality, work patterns, and sex roles within and among human societies. How anthropologists describe and explain these variations.

4182     Anthropology of Power (3) Prerequisite: ANTH 1010.  Meets with ANTH 6182.  Anthropology provides the framework for understanding power - not just the power of the state, but the power in everyday life, in friendships, families, coalitions and communities. Attention to social inequalities based on class, caste, race and gender.

4183     Sex and Gender: Biosocial Perspectives (3) Meets with ANTH 6183.  Why are females feminine, males masculine, and occasionally vice versa? Addresses the study of sex and gender differences from a biosocial perspective, with particular emphasis placed on the ways in which biological and cultural factors interact. Considers evolutionary, developmental, and socio-economic perspectives. Cross-cultural differences and similarities are emphasized.

4184     Hunter-Gatherer Ethnology (3) Meets with ANTH 6184. All of human experience before the last 10,000 years passed in this way of life. What is known about it? Survey of ecology, economics, technology, political and social organization, and religion among recent hunting and gathering people. Implications for human evolution are examined.

4185     Culture Change (3) Meets with ANTH 5185.  Socio-cultural persistence and change and the processes that maintain stability or transform culture. Change ranging from indigenous innovation and invention to diffusion and acculturation are compared. The premises and methods of applied anthropology and their utilization in development projects are analyzed.

4186     Human Ecology (3) Meets with ANTH 6186.  Survey of anthropological research on the relationships between environment and human behavior.

4187     Economic Anthropology (3) Meets with ANTH 6187.  Sharing and saving, balanced reciprocity and market exchange, money and morality, economic redistribution and political power: a look at systems of property and exchange as part of culture, in societies ranging from tribal foragers to post-industrial consumers.

4192     Culture, Health, and Healing (3) Meets with ANTH 6192. Using anthropological research and perspectives, this course studies how the concept and practice of health and healing are mediated by culture in different historical and societal contexts.

4193     Medical Anthropology (3) Meets with ANTH 6193. Applied anthropology addressing the problem of behavioral change with regard to health issues from an evolutionary and cultural perspective. Examples will be drawn from cultures world-wide.

4231     Social Consequences of Human Biological Diversity (3) Prerequisite: ANTH 1020 or 1050 or BIOL 1000.  Meets with ANTH 6231.  This is a mid-level course in anthropology about social consequences of human biological diversity.  Important issues for citizens that demand scientific knowledge are explored.

4241     Darwinian Medicine (3) Meets with ANTH 5241.  Evolution sheds light on medicine in various ways. It tells us why some pathogens are more virulent than others, why mothers and fetuses show adaptations for conflict (as well as cooperation) with one another, why we age, and why human females (but not those of other species) stop reproducing with years of good health ahead of them. These and other issues are covered in this survey of what evolution has to say about medicine.

4242     Anthropology of Clinical Health Care (3) Prerequisite: Junior or Senior Standing.  Meets with ANTH 6242. This course explores the theory and ethnography of the origins and structure of contemporary, biomedicine, focusing on clinical settings such as hospitals, physicians' offices, HMOs, etc. in relationship to the cultural system of the West.

4255     Race and Culture (3) Meets with ANTH 6255.  This course will view the crucial human question of race, using the insights of social science, biological science, and history. What is race? Does it even exist? How is race treated in different cultures? What is the history of racism? Emphasis will be placed on the American experience, but will use worldwide examples for comparison.

*Fulfills Diversity (DV)

4261     Paleoanthropology (3) Meets with ANTH 6261.  Advanced treatment of hominid fossil record from Miocene to recent. Related data in archaeology, geology, geochronology, taphonomy, and paleoclimatic reconstructions.

4271     Human Osteology (3) Meets with ANTH 6271.  Laboratory course emphasizing forensic and archaeological problems in the identification and study of the human skeleton. Techniques in bone identification, sex, race, and age determination, stature reconstruction, paleopathology, and bone biology.

4272     Forensic Anthropology (3) Prerequisite: ANTH 1020.  Introduction to the basic principles of forensic anthropology.  The course will use human osteology, archaeology, and other anthropological research methods in the analysis and interpretation of human remains for the medico-legal professions.

4281     Primates (3) A survey of the diversity of non-human primates within the framework of evolutionary ecology. This course also explores the ways that the study of other primates contributes to our understanding of human behavior and evolution. Meets with ANTH 6281.

4291     Evolution of Human Health (3) Meets with ANTH 6291.  History of human health in ecological, cultural, and historic contexts.

4334     Population Issues in Anthropology (3) Prerequisite: Junior or Senior Standing.  Meets with ANTH 6334. Explores the role population factors play in anthropological explanation in both archaeological and ethnographic settings. Specific issues include possible relationships between population pressure and the adoption of agriculture, and problems of reconstructing ancient people's health.

4341     Fundamentals of Archaeology (3) Prerequisite: ANTH 1030.  Introduction to basic archaeological field techniques; mapping, field notes, photography, survey and basic excavation techniques. Combines lectures and field exercises.

4351     Anthropological Demography (3) Prerequisite: Any ANTH course and MATH 1070 or equivalent.  Meets with ANTH 5351. Demographic survey of anthropological populations, including population history, methods of demographic analysis of small populations, skeletal series, population structure, and biological and cultural analysis of population change, marriage, and vital events.

4372     Zooarchaeology (3) Meets with ANTH 6372. Analyses of animal bones and teeth from archaeological sites help us understand ancient human foraging behavior and the nature of past environments. This intensive, laboratory-based class provides an introduction to archaeological faunal analysis, including the preparation of specimens for an osteological comparative collection. Students gain experience conducting research on faunal materials excavated from local archaeological sites.

4461     Behavioral Ecology and Anthropology (3) Prerequisite: ANTH 1050.  Meets with ANTH 5461. Introduces theory, concepts, and models used to investigate and explain patterns of behavior in animals, and reviews applications to anthropological topics, including foraging strategies, social interactions, and the evolution of human life histories.

4481     Evolutionary Psychology (3) Meets with ANTH 5481. Evolutionary Psychology is a new inter-disciplinary field that studies how our preferences, emotions, and ways of thinking and behaving have been shaped by natural selection. This course discusses how our minds and behavior have evolved to cope with problems of survival, mating and parenting, cooperation, conflict, and status competition.

4962     Special Topics: Topical Requirement (3) Meets with ANTH 5962. Topics vary. These courses count as topical requirements for the major.

5221     Human Evolutionary Genetics (3) Prerequisite: Upper level undergraduate or Graduate, any Evolutionary or Ecology course and one Calculus course.  An introduction to the data and quantitative theory of human evolutionary genetics.  It covers microevolution, and also methods that reconstruct evolutionary history from genes.

*Fulfills Quantitative Intensive (QI for a B.S.)

5471     Fundamental Methods of Evolutionary Ecology (3) Prerequisite:  Upper level undergraduate or Graduate, any Evolutionary or Ecology course and one Calculus course.  An introduction to the quantitative theory and methods of evolutionary ecology.  Introduces students to Maple, a computer language for quantitative modeling. 

*Fulfills Quantitative Intensive (QI for a B.S.)

UPPER DIVISION ELECTIVE COURSES

3969     Special Topics (3) Topics Vary. These courses do not count as topical or geographical requirements for the major. A total of 2 courses (6 credits maximum) are allowed towards the major.

4950     Individual Studies (1 to 3) A maximum of six credit hours allowed toward major requirements.

3000     Success Through Academic Resources and Technology (1) Designed for entering transfer students and prospective anthropology majors. Its objectives entail providing students with the knowledge, strategies, and competencies to help enhance their experience at the University of Utah. Students are expected to take this course in conjunction with other courses in their prospective major so that this course can help improve critical thinking skills in the major and help students to integrate knowledge in the major. Students will have opportunities to improve computer literacy skills and to learn essential library technologies.      

Updated 6/06