An introduction to the central concepts in medical anthropology and the anthropology of global health. This course is a survey of anthropological notions of health, disease, and the body in cross-cultural and global contexts, including classic and contemporary texts. It will provide an examination of systems of knowledge and practice with regard to illness, healing, and global health inequities.

An introduction to the central concepts in medical anthropology and the anthropology of global health. This course is a survey of anthropological notions of health, disease, and the body in cross-cultural and global contexts, including classic and contemporary texts. It will provide an examination of systems of knowledge and practice with regard to illness, healing, and global health inequities.

Provides a brief history of forensic sciences, an introduction to some of the techniques used, and a demonstration of some of the applications of forensic sciences. A survey course designed to give the student some exposure to the kinds of scientific knowledge and techniques applied to the medico-legal investigation of death and other crimes.

An introduction to the evolution of human physiology and human behavior, the relationship between hominid and non-hominid primates, and the study of relationships between a population of humans and their biophysical environment.

Exploration of the variety of past human societies and cultures through archaeology, from the emergence of anatomically modern humans to the more recent historical past.

An examination of why climate changes, the methods for recording climate change, and case studies of the varied responses of past human societies to climate change in different geographic regions and time periods with varying socio-political and economic systems.

Culture and social relationships in a wide variety of settings from small-scale to complex societies. An overview of how anthropology analyzes human behavior. Particular attention to the relationship between language and culture.

An overview of sexuality from an anthropological perspective, looking at aspects of sexuality within our own culture and in cultures around the world. Course topics include the biology and culture of sex, gender, physical attraction, sexual orientation, marriage and mating taboos, fertility control, sexually transmitted diseases, and commercial aspects of sex

An examination of the phenomenon of international migration, or immigration. Students develop awareness of how immigration has been framed in the general public and examined by social science disciplines, most prominently anthropology. Examination of case studies of different immigrant groups in distinct geographic contexts will illuminate the varied incorporation experiences of immigrants into U.S. society.

An overview of the growing field of global health including health care systems, medical practices, ideas about illness in cross-cultural contexts, issues of health development, global health inequity, and human rights issues. The course will focus on the history of global health, the critique of major international health agencies and their development paradigms, and the political economy of social inequalities and health.

Explore past, present, and future interactions between humans and climate. Discussions, methods-oriented activities, and case study analyses provide students a foundation for appreciating the role of anthropology in understanding, responding to, and preparing for climate change.

The purpose of this course is to critically evaluate and determine the political, social, and economic implications of the term Diaspora. To do so we will study and discuss how it is defined, theorized, deconstructed, and employed throughout the social sciences.

A team-taught, interdisciplinary course discussing theories, methods, and ethical issues in the practice of archaeology.

Provides a critical perspective to global health that encompasses key political, economic, and cultural factors associated with the nature and magnitude of global health issues such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, paying particular attention to how poverty and inequalities within and between societies has accelerated current global health challenges. Introduces students to how medical anthropologists have contributed to the debates surrounding the globalization of health.

A theoretical consideration of ecological anthropology, focusing on issues related to cooperation, the management of common property, resilience, and sustainability. Explores the methods of sociocultural anthropology, including ethnology, evolutionary game theory and agent-based modeling; and natural-science approaches including behavioral and systems ecology.

The impact of diseases on populations from prehistoric times through the present will be examined, along with public perceptions of disease, scientific breakthroughs on treatment and prevention, and the ways that politics and public health policies can enhance or impede the advancement of disease treatment. The natural history of disease, population structure, and immunity will be discussed. The class will address emerging and re-emerging diseases and the ways that first responders, researchers, and policy makers may affect the outcome of an outbreak.

Theory, method, and practice which guides modern anthropological archaeology. Includes research design and execution (from survey through excavation and interpretation), the reconstruction of aspects of past cultures, and the understanding of cultural change and meaning.

Zooarchaeology is the study of animal remains, especially bones, from archaeological contexts. This course will address both methodology as well as many of the main issues in contemporary zooarchaeology. Zooarchaeology stands at the intersection of a number of social and biological sciences, such as Biology, Osteology, Ecology, History, Anthropology and Economics. We will discuss basic animal osteology and the concepts and practices behind the identification of animal remains from archaeological contexts.

Theoretical approaches and research methods in sociocultural anthropology. Emphasis on current debates, new directions, and their historical antecedents.

Contemporary discourse analysis and pragmatics applied to ethnographic research problems with particular attention to roots in recent linguistic anthropological work in ethnographic semantics and ethnography of speaking.

Anthropology majors develop a set of skills that can be used both in the workplace and in the processes of finding meaningful employment. This small seminar course is designed to guide Anthropology majors in reflecting upon themselves, their Anthropology education, and work opportunities. Through short lectures, student presentations, and facilitated discussions, this course will push Anthropology majors to think about how they will use their Anthropology education to form a career. It is open to any Anthropology major.

Explores the various political and moral considerations of humanitarianism and humanitarian thought. Analyzes "humanism," "aid," "rescue," "emergency," and "refugees" in the context of 20th and 21st century humanitarian crises and interventions, through ethnographic and historical research.

The United Nations estimates that some 230 million people around the world are migrants who live outside their country of birth. This course focuses on these migrant populations, considering the implications of movement across borders and settlement in new societies on their health and well-being. We will investigate the social, political, and economic structures that shape disease and illness and produce differential access to health care for migrants. Within that context, we will explore the health effects of migration itself and particular health conditions from which migrants suffer.

Also offered as: ANTH612. Credit only granted for: ANTH412 or ANTH612.

Powerful economic, political, social, and cultural forces shape who gets sick, what illnesses/diseases they get, how they are treated while seeking care, what treatment options they have, and what their ultimate health outcomes are. The goal of the course is to understand these processes through the lens of critical medical anthropology.

Ethnographic and cross-cultural approaches to women's health domestically and globally, with particular attention to the ways in which morality, politics, local meanings, and the state influence women's reproductive health outcomes. Gendered, ethnic, and class dimensions that underlie patterning of disease and illness will be explored, with special attention to the long-term health effects of racism, poverty, structural violence, and sexism

In addition to descriptive information about bone identification, the lectures will address the history of human anatomical studies, the development of analytical techniques, and the application of these techniques in paleoanthropology, comparative anatomy, functional anatomy (and related fields, such as physical therapy), and skeletal analysis in museum, historic cemetery, archaeological, and forensic settings. Emphasis will be on the development of the skeleton and recognition of normal variation in bones.

Has slavery always existed? Does it come and go? North American plantation archaeology has become one of the foundations for understanding African American culture from the 1960s. Slavery in Antiquity existed in Greece and Rome on large scales and was essential to making commercial agriculture profitable work. Slavery in the Caribbean showed Europeans how to make a profit from African bodies. Trafficking in human persons today is recorded by the U.S. State Department annually and is regarded as modern slavery.

An introduction to a wide array of technologies that are becoming increasingly accessible for use by archaeologists.

Presents the students with conceptual tools for thinking about and studying anything created or modified by human activities from 1750 to the present. Emphasizes the skills for doing original research, delivering well-organized and succinct oral presentations, and preparing a professional report.

Explores the uses and environments for archaeological work through a discussion of museum, electronic media, heritage settings, outdoor history museums, including the legal environment that offers protection for archaeological remains. The course exposes students to the majority of cultural media within which archaeology is currently practiced.

The primary purpose is to highlight some of the key achievements made by archaeologists in informing questions of interest to society from 1850 on. Key achievements include how archaeologists understand elements of the past thought to be central to the development of modern socieity. A secondary purpose is to introduce students to the theories used to understand the place of the past in society and the function of answers to questions thought central to modern social life.

An in-depth introduction to the world of material culture studies with focus on the methods and theories in historical archaeology. Students will look at archaeological data as historical documents, commodities and as symbols expressing ideas.

An overview of contemporary application of cultural theory and methods to environmental problems. Topics include the use of theories of culture, cognitive approaches, discourse analysis, and political ecology. Case studies from anthropology, other social sciences, humanities, conservation, and environmental history are used to demonstrate the applied value of a cultural-environmental approach.

This course aims to provide the student with an overview of modern environmental archaeology as a tool for the interdisciplinary investigation of past and present global change and to engage the long term past with current issues of sustainability and rapid environmental change. Past human impact on environment, climate impacts, and the environmental components of culture contact, imperial expansion, and early globalization are all major topics for discussion. Case studies will be used to focus discussion and as subjects for student led presentations.

Human activities now influence ongoing global climatic change, and the outcome remains uncertain for communities and cultures around the world. This interaction between humans and climate provides a rich area of study for anthropologists in an interdisciplinary context. Case studies of historic and contemporary evidence will be used to understand impacts of global climate change and assess opportunities and barriers to successful responses and adaptation.

The course provides an overview of how social scientists, in particular historical archaeologists, approach modern cities as being part of the materiality of the social structure and order. It uses a multidisciplinary approach that includes various aspects of social history, anthropology, sociology, to understand the use of space, living conditions, and the material remains of past communities. The history of cities and accompanying social issues provide the grounding to understand how the creation and use of urban landscapes can segregate ethnic, class, and racial factions.

The use of the environment is contested and negotiated within historic and contemporary societies. Incorporating methods and perspectives from across the social sciences through specific case studies in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa, this course offers a survey to coupled human-environmental systems.

This course considers indigenous peoples and their relation to the lands on which they live. The course considers issues of traditional indigenousknowledge and land management as well as new contributions by indigenous peoples to changing landscapes. It reviews legal mechanisms and instruments through which indigenous peoples have rights to the resources they occupy and utilize. Taking specific cases and examining them through the lens of political and social ecology, the class considers the role of indigenous peoples in local and worldwide conservation efforts.

Considers indigenous peoples and their relation to the lands on which they live, issues of traditional indigenous knowledge and land management as well as new contributions by indigenous peoples to changing landscapes. Reviews legal mechanisms and instruments through which indigenous peoples have rights to the resources they occupy and utilize. Taking specific cases and examining them through the lens of political and social ecology, tthe role of indigenous peoples in local and worldwide conservation efforts is considered.

An introduction to linguistic variation and the construction of identity, relationship, and community membership through language use. The approach emphasizes language as community-based practice and examines the dynamic construction of social relations through linguistic interactions.

This is an interdisciplinary course that utilizes film to consider the Amazon basin, its history, peoples, and landscapes through cinematic representations. The course places the films in the context of film history and critical theory. Films range from the imaginative re-enactments of early exploration; first contacts between Europeans and native Americans; rubber boom extravagances; rainforest ecology and threats to rainforest survival; as well as complex social interactions in modern Amazonia.

A global exploration of how the past is remade in the present. Covers the breadth of scope and specific interventions of heritage practice at the global scale, including the social, political, economic, and ethical dimensions of cultural heritage.

Examines the concept and meaning of work, the different types of work, and how the development of time discipline became essential for the creation of capitalist labor. Explores the contemporary social justice movement and its impact on gender and racialized inequities. Includes an exploration of deindustrialized regions in the Rust Belt.

In this applied course, students use mixed methods to research a locally-based, environmental sustainability issue. Classroom time will be split between seminar discussions of theory, methods, and relevant case studies, and lab work focused on project development, data analysis, and report write up. Students are expected to spend additional time outside class on data collection, analysis, and writing. In the Fall 2015 course, students will use an anthropological lens to assess environmental and community sustainability and change in Columbia, MD over the past half ce

An examination of interactions between anthropologists and military and intelligence agencies, with attention to three particular periods in U.S. history. (1) World War II, when more than half of the nation’s anthropologists were utilizing their professional skills in some capacity to advance the war effort—gathering military intelligence, writing training documents, and working for government agencies. (2) The Cold War, during which time, American anthropologists again worked closely with the U.S.

An exploration of how cultural and social constructions of gender, race, ethnicity, region, nationality, profession, discipline, workplace, and other categories of learned difference can influence how we interpret the self and the "other" and inadvertently lead to interpersonal communication breakdowns, intra-personal, interpersonal and/or intergroup conflict, including war and other hostilities. An exploration of how cultural understanding can lead to solutions in such breakdowns or conflicts.

This course is an introduction to Native American Languages and Cultures from a linguistic anthropological
perspective. Topics to be explored include Native American identities, the structure of Native languages, oral
traditions, narrative story-telling, Native language and thought (Sapir/Whorf), language shift, revitalizing
endangered languages, indigenous representation, and discourses on race and racialization.

An exploration of the relationship between language, identity and racism in a variety of social contexts, in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Examines social and ecological environments in Asia through the lens of classic and contemporary ethnographies from across the continent. Considers how cultural, political and economic dynamics interact with ecological systems in both recurring and unexpected ways. Ethnographies include case studies of global commodity chains, technoscientific management, borders and migration, conservation, and local knowledge as they intersect with changing environments.

The focus is on the use of applied ethnographic field methods in community assessment research in urban settings. Also, it will extend beyond most ethnographic training in which the emphasis is on being there, and relying predominantly on the classical ethnographic methods of recursive observations, participant observations, and a variety of approaches to interviewing

An overview of the history and current practices of applied anthropology. This includes relationships between applied anthropology and other major subfields of the profession; the interdisciplinary and public context of applied anthropology; and problems of significance, utility, and ethics associated with applied anthropology.

An introduction to the use of ethnography and qualitative methods in applied and policy contexts. Qualitative methods discussed include informal and systematic approaches. Students undertake fieldwork in local settings to practice the qualitative methods and to develop analysis and report writing skills.

An intensive overview of key quantitative and statistical approaches used by social scientists in applied ad policy research. This includes nonparametric and parametric statistical approaches. Students utilize statistical software and analyze existing and student-created databases. Anthropological case studies are emphasized.

Provides students a basic understanding of museums as cultural and intellectual institutions. Topics include the historical development of museums, museums as resources for scholarly study, and the museum exhibition as medium for presentation of scholarship.

Provides a critical perspective to global health that encompasses key political, economic, and cultural factors associated with the nature and magnitude of global health issues such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, paying particular attention to how poverty and inequalities within and between societies has accelerated current global health challenges. Introduces students to how medical anthropologists have contributed to the debates surrounding the globalization of health.

An exploration of the relationship between language, identity and racism in a variety of social contexts, in the U.S. and elsewhere.

An overview of important approaches to ecological anthropology. Population, systems, community, political, behavioral and evolutionary ecology will be examined as they have been applied to a range of anthropological questions. Complexity theory (nonlinear dynamics) and topics in game theory will also be addressed. Students will map the field of ecological anthropology and to assess the strengths and weaknesses of contemporary approaches, methods and theories.

The primary purpose is to highlight some of the key achievements made b archaeologists in informing questions of interest to society from 1850 on. Key achievements include how archaeologists understand elements of the past thought to be central to the development of modern socieity. A secondary purpose is to introduce students to the theories used to understand the place of the past in society and the function of answers to questions thought central to modern social life.

A broad perspective of the history of social cultural theory in anthropology and the critical skills needed for understanding the subdiscipline is provided. An overview of the history of theorizing about society and culture will help outline the past, present, and future of anthropology and its relations with other scientific and humanistic disciplines.