Class Schedules

This course is an introduction to the discipline of anthropology as a whole. It presents students with a theoretical grounding in the four major subfields: archaeology, biological anthropology, cultural anthropology, and linguistics. In this class the emphasis is on the holistic nature of the discipline. Students will be challenged with some of the countless links between the systems of biology and culture. They will explore key questions about human diversity in the past, present, and future. Prerequisite(s): Not open to students who've taken ANTH 111.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

The cultural perspective on human behavior including case studies, often illustrated by ethnographic films and slides, of non-Western and American cultures. May include some field interviewing. Includes the cross cultural treatment of economic, legal, political, social and religious institutions and a survey of major approaches to the explanation of cultural variety and human social organization. Prerequisite(s): Not open to students who've taken ANTH 101.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism OR U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

The cultural perspective on human behavior including case studies, often illustrated by ethnographic films and slides, of non-Western and American cultures. May include some field interviewing. Includes the cross cultural treatment of economic, legal, political, social and religious institutions and a survey of major approaches to the explanation of cultural variety and human social organization. Prerequisite(s): Not open to students who've taken ANTH 101.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism OR U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

In this course we will examine the early foundations and historical development of the field of psychological anthropology. Psychological anthropology can most simply be understood as a field of study that looks to investigate the ways in which individual experience on the one hand, and cultural meaning on the other, interrelate. Students will read and discuss Freud, Benedict, Sapir, Hallowell, Rosaldo, and Lutz, along with other recent central figures.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Language loss is accelerating at alarming rates. In fact, Linguists predict that only five percent of the six thousand languages currently spoken in the world are expected to survive into the 22nd century. In this course, we will examine the historical, political, and socio-economic factors behind the endangerment and/or marginalization of languages in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and South America. We will also concentrate on the globalization of English (and other major languages), which plays a primary role in language endangerment and marginalization. Additional topics include: linguistic diversity, language policy, multilingualism (in both nations and individuals), global language conflict, and language revitalization. Students will have the opportunity to learn first-hand about these issues by interviewing speakers of an endangered and/or minority language.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

An introduction to ethnographic field interviewing learned in the context of individually run student field projects. Focuses on the anthropologist-informant field relationship and the discovery of cultural knowledge through participant observation and ethnosemantic interviewing techniques. Prerequisite(s): ANTH 101 or ANTH 111 or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course examines issues of health, illness, and healing from a variety of anthropological perspectives. From a cross-cultural perspective, we will examine the diversity of beliefs about human health and sickness, and a variety of healing practices by which people treat them. From the perspective of critical epidemiology, we will wrestle with recurrent problems of socioeconomic inequalities, ecological disruptions, and their impact upon the differential distribution, prevention, and treatment of human diseases. Previous courses in anthropology are recommended but not required.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Africa has long been a continent on the move. This course introduces students to concepts associated with systems, process, and change in Africa by juxtaposing classic and contemporary ethnography that aims to get at how lives, subjectivities, and intimacies on the continent mediate and are shaped by global historical processes and how anthropologists have inhabited and tried to grasp such contexts. Toward this end, we draw on diverse representations of Africa that include fiction, film, and more traditional forms of scholarship. Prerequisite(s): ANTH 101 or ANTH 111.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

From Italian Mafia dons to famous American philanthropists; from the knitting of "trauma teddies" in Helsinki to gift shopping in London; and from ceremonial exchange rings in Melanesia to the present day global refugee crisis: this course will investigate how generosity is understood and practiced in global perspective. We'll begin the semester by examining key debates surrounding reciprocity, gifts, and exchange, theories of altruism and generosity, and patron-client relations. We'll then explore the birth of the "humanitarian spirit," and the complicated ethics and politics of humanitarian intervention. We will compare diverse religious traditions' approaches to giving, including Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, and Jainism. And we'll explore contemporary debates surrounding volunteerism within sectarian and neoliberal political regimes.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

An exploration of the interaction between ecology, morphology, and culture in human evolution. Topics include the evolutionary adaptation of non-human primates and hominins to their various ecological and social environments, taxonomic classification systems, and techniques used in the analysis of primate fossils to help determine both their geological age and phylogenetic placement. Prerequisite(s): ANTH 112, or ANTH 115, or ANTH 240 or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

This course is an introduction to the anthropology of food, focusing on how food creates community and shapes identity, class and gender. The course also covers the transition from foraging to agriculture, the role of particular foods in the making of the modern world, and the nature of the modern industrial food system. Prerequisite(s): ANTH 101 or ANTH 111.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

The word “ritual” is used in many contexts to refer to types of practice that are considered centrally important, as well as formalistic and repetitive. This seminar-style course concentrates on the concept of ritual as a central component of social practice, within and without religious groupings. Focusing on developing the concept of ritual, we will focus on ritual across traditions. This requires students to ‘work with’ concepts - forming a conception of what they mean by ritual, and be willing to change that conception when faced with contradictory evidence.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Central to research is storytelling. This course provides the theoretical and methodological toolkits that students will use to conduct visual research in Geography and the Social Sciences. Drawing on Gillian Rose’s Visual Methodologies, the course surveys topics including research ethics, visual culture, discourse analysis, digital methods, participant observation and community-based research practices, and visual representation. Students will develop skills to observe, record, and analyze issues and processes in the local community in the Twin Cities through semester-long visual research projects by making still (photography) and moving (film) images. In addition, students will work on individual and group projects for hands-on experience on other digital methods. There are no prerequisites for this course and no prior background knowledge in visual methods or tools are required.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

The cultural perspective on human behavior including case studies, often illustrated by ethnographic films and slides, of non-Western and American cultures. May include some field interviewing. Includes the cross cultural treatment of economic, legal, political, social and religious institutions and a survey of major approaches to the explanation of cultural variety and human social organization. Prerequisite(s): Not open to students who've taken ANTH 101.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism OR U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This class is a broad survey covering topics such as genetics, evolutionary mechanisms, adaptation, primate studies, the human fossil record, and human variation. All of these areas will be placed within the framework of the interaction of humans within their environment. The course is divided into three sections: human genetics, human ecology and primatology, human evolution and adaptation.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q1

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

There is much discussion about the changing terms of formal employment, and related concerns have only intensified amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Entrepreneurs, gig workers, online contractors and now an unprecedented number of telecommuters are challenging conventional models of the nine-to-five job. But nine-to-five has hardly been the norm throughout history, nor does it describe the typical work experience around the world today. This course takes an anthropological approach to consider the contemporary diversity of working worlds and worker experiences, as well as important historical shifts that have brought us to this moment, are currently underway, and will carry us into new working futures. Gender, race, class, and age are all deeply implicated in unequal systems here, as are powerful biological, economic and political forces. Who has to work? Who gets to work? Who is able to work safely? Who is empowered by it and who is exploited? Why do we work? What work is most valued? …When will the robots come for our jobs? Drawing on examples from around the world, and materials ranging from ethnographic writing and film to popular media, u/dystopian fiction, as well as personal experiences over the past year, we will take a comparative approach to these and other pressing questions raised by today’s diverse and shifting worlds of work.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism OR U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

In this course we will examine the early foundations and historical development of the field of psychological anthropology. Psychological anthropology can most simply be understood as a field of study that looks to investigate the ways in which individual experience on the one hand, and cultural meaning on the other, interrelate. Students will read and discuss Freud, Benedict, Sapir, Hallowell, Rosaldo, and Lutz, along with other recent central figures.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course introduces students to archaeology, the study of the material remains of human culture. Students will explore the history of the discipline and profession, its basic methods and theories, and the political and ethical dimensions of modern archaeological practice. Students learn to examine and interpret evidence using specific examples, from artifacts to sites to regions.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

An introduction to ethnographic field interviewing learned in the context of individually run student field projects. Focuses on the anthropologist-informant field relationship and the discovery of cultural knowledge through participant observation and ethnosemantic interviewing techniques. Prerequisite(s): ANTH 101 or ANTH 111 or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course examines the Qur'an and hadith, and other authoritative texts that ground Islamic jurisprudence, and explores the diverse ways in which Muslims have understood and interpreted these teachings in locations across the world (i.e. Indonesia, the Middle East, South Asia, Europe and the United States) and at various points in history.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism OR U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

In this course we will examine ethnographies situated at the intersection of psychiatry and culture. We will examine the role of culture(s) and detail key theoretical and practical debates pertinent to the globalization of mental health care. This course is guided by an examination into the ways in which mental and emotional unwellness is made, unmade, and remade in response to dynamic social life. Attention to history, political-economic structures, stigma, race, class, ethnicity, and gender will undergird our consideration of cultural factors. We will read ethnographies from diverse geographies, including Morocco, Algeria, United States, Italy, Ireland, Nepal, and Tibet. Prerequisite: ANTH 101 or ANTH 111 or ANTH 239; or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Birds are among the most visible and colorful members of the natural world. That has generated, across societies and over time, considerable human engagement with and awareness of birds. Birds have been utilized for both utilitarian and symbolic purposes. This course is an introduction to the knowledge that different cultures have of birds, and to their formal scientific study in modern times. The topics we will examine include the place of birds in myth and religion; indigenous ways to classify birds; how local traditions relating to birds can serve as models for conservation; the relationship of local and traditional knowledge to the development of modern ornithology; and the part played by amateur birders and other non-professionals in the emergence of ornithology as a science. To develop our own engagement with birds, there will be a number of fieldtrips to birding sites in the Twin Cities, on class days and also on Saturdays. Students should be prepared to participate in these field trips, starting at 7:00 a.m. No prerequisites.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course examines the influence of Charles Darwin on both the discipline of Anthropology and general scientific thought in the 20th century. It begins with an exploration of the emergence of modern evolutionary theory, its role in society, and how it is essential to the field of Anthropology. We consider some of the work of Darwin's predecessors, who laid the intellectual and scientific foundations that Darwin built upon, as well as those who adapted Darwin's concepts to theories of social change. Students also read and discuss some of the biggest debates surrounding the theory of Evolution by Natural Selection, both past and present. Finally, we look at the future of evolutionary theory in light of recent developments in molecular biology and the fossil record. Prerequisite(s): One of the following: ANTH 101, ANTH 111, ANTH 112, ANTH 115, BIOL 112, BIOL 180, or BIOL 170.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course serves as an introduction to feminist theories within anthropology. Structured around the historical development of the relationship between feminism(s), activism, and critical ethnography, students will acquire knowledge about theoretical and methodological debates within feminist anthropology. This course will help students gain an understanding about important developments and contributions to the broader field of anthropology and ethnographic writing. By the end of this course students will have developed the skills to critically analyze and discuss historic and contemporary issues pertinent to feminist perspectives in anthropology, including gender, embodiment, positionality, representation, power, equality, and identity. Prerequisite: ANTH 101 or ANTH 111, or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course introduces students to the broad range of explanations for social and cultural phenomena used by anthropologists since the emergence of the discipline in the 19th century. The course focuses on the development of three broad theoretical approaches: The American school of cultural anthropology, British social anthropology, and the French school that emerged from the work of Durkheim and his followers. The course also examines theoretical approaches such as cultural materialism, and symbolic and interpretive approaches to the study of culture. Prerequisite(s): Junior or senior standing.  Students should have at least two courses in anthropology including ANTH 101 or ANTH 111, or the permission of the instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

The senior seminar is for Anthropology majors who are working on their senior capstone project and is designed to help students develop that project for presentation. The seminar will also include reading of Anthropological works, guest speakers and discussion of current controversies in the discipline. Prerequisite(s): ANTH 111 or ANTH 101, and either ANTH 387 or ANTH 487.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials