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241 - 250 of 438 results for: ANTHRO

ANTHRO 213: Culture and Epigenetics: Towards A Non-Darwinian Synthesis (ANTHRO 113, ARCHLGY 113)

The course examines the impact of new research in epigenetics on our understanding of long-term cultural change. The course examines the various attempts that have been made over recent decades to find a synthesis between cultural and biological evolution. These approaches, often termed neo-Darwinian, include memes, dual inheritance theory, theories of cultural selection and transmission, niche construction theory and macro-evolutionary approaches. Research in all these areas will be examined, with particular reference to explanations for the origins of agriculture, but also including other transformations, and critiqued. New research in epigenetics offers an alternative non-Darwinian evolutionary perspective that avoids many of the problems and pitfalls in the neo-Darwinian approaches. Cultural evolution comes to be viewed as cumulative, directional and Lamarckian, since heritable epigenetic variation can underlie evolutionary change. Epigenetics opens the way for human cultural entanglements to become the drivers for evolutionary change, thus allowing the full range of social processes studied in the social and cultural sciences to take their place in the study and analysis of long-term change.
Terms: Aut | Units: 4-5
Instructors: Hodder, I. (PI)

ANTHRO 213B: Religious Practices in Archaeological Cultures (ANTHRO 113B, ARCHLGY 113B)

According to Hawkes (1954), religion or ideology is the most difficult part of social life to access archaeologically. Luckily, not all scholars agree; according to Fogelin (2008) 'religion is not something people think about, but something people do¿. Thus, archaeology, an inherently multidisciplinary subject that studies material culture, is well suited to delve into religion and its underpinnings.nThis course will explore religious practices, as they can be defined and interpreted from archaeological contexts spanning the Paleolithic to historic periods. Definitions of religion differ from author to author but they mostly agree that religion is a fully integrated and thus integral part of human social life. Politics, economics, identity and social class influence religion, and religion influences how these forces play out in society. Thus, the course will also examine the significance of ritual and religion in a variety of social contexts.
Last offered: Winter 2016

ANTHRO 214A: Introduction to South Asian Archaeolgy (ANTHRO 114A, ARCHLGY 114A)

This seminar will survey the archaeology of South Asia, beginning with animal and plant domestication in the early Holocene and ending with the late Medieval Period. Given its chronological breadth and spatial scope, the class will interrogate a variety of social and historical contexts that contribute to a broad range of anthropological research concerns¿including the intersections of authority, ritual, alterity and landscape¿and at the same time critically consider the epistemological bases for their analyses through archaeological remains.
Last offered: Winter 2016

ANTHRO 214B: Landscape Archaeology and Global Information Systematics (ANTHRO 114B)

This course is meant to lay groundwork for analysis of archaeological landscapes using the methods of GIS. Throughout, we consider the various understandings of landscape, from the biographical to the biological. The course explores the history of various typologies of landscape, incorporating the cultural, the topographical, the ecological, and the topological; reviews different types of landscape data and analysis, including aerial imagery, stratigraphic excavations, and specialized analyses; addresses how to integrate different sorts of data sets and carry out analytical assessment of interrelated "layers" as dynamic constituents of landscape; considers implications of landscape studies in modern policy and management. Students will create interpretive frameworks for a public audience as a component of the final project.
Last offered: Winter 2014

ANTHRO 215: The Social life of Human Bones (ANTHRO 115, ARCHLGY 115)

Skeletal remains serve a primary function of support and protection for the human body. However, beyond this, they have played a range of social roles once an individual is deceased. The processes associated with excarnation, interment, exhumation and reburial all speak to the place that the body, and its parts, play in our cultural as well as physical landscape.n This course builds on introductory courses in human skeletal anatomy by adding the social dynamics that govern the way humans treat other humans once they have died. It draws on anthropological, biological and archaeological research, with case studies spanning a broad chronological and spatial framework to provide students with an overview of social practice as it relates to the human body.
Last offered: Autumn 2017

ANTHRO 215B: Peoples and Cultures of Ancient Mesoamerica (ANTHRO 115B)

This course engages with the world of ancient Mesoamerica, focusing on the Mixtec, Aztec, Maya, Zapotec, Chichimec, Olmec, and Teotihuacan peoples. We address how questions about the past are framed through ethnographic and ethnohistoric accounts of daily life, how diverse scientific methods and theoretical perspectives are used to address these questions, how interpretations of daily life in the ancient Mesoamerican world are formulated, and how these interpretations are marshaled in contemporary politics and policies. We explore different scales of Mesoamerican communities, and compare the diverse material culture and lifeways represented in Mesoamerica at different time periods. Students will create interpretive frameworks for a public audience as a component of the final project.
Last offered: Spring 2014

ANTHRO 216: Data Analysis for Quantitative Research (ANTHRO 116)

An introduction to numeric methods in Anthropology and related fields employing the Data Desk statistics package to test hypotheses and to explore data. Examples chosen from the instructor¿s research and other relevant projects. No statistical background is necessary, but a working knowledge of algebra is important. Topics covered include: Frequency Distributions; Measures of Central Tendency, Dispersion, and Variability; Probability and Probability Distributions; Statistical Inference, Comparisons of Sample Means and Standard Deviations; Analysis of Variance; Contingency Tables, Comparisons of Frequencies; Correlation and Regression; Principal Components Analysis; Discriminant Analysis; and Cluster Analysis. Grading based on take-home problem sets.
Terms: Aut | Units: 5
Instructors: Klein, R. (PI)

ANTHRO 216B: Anthropology of the Environment (ANTHRO 116B)

This seminar interrogates the history of anthropology's approach to the environment, beginning with early functionalist, structuralist, and Marxist accounts of human-environment relationships. It builds towards more recent developments in the field, focusing on nonhuman and relational ontologies as well as current projects on the intersections of nature, capital, politics, and landscape histories. At the end of this class, students will be familiar with the intellectual histories of environmental anthropology and contemporary debates and tensions around questions of ethics, agency, environment, and historical causality.
Last offered: Spring 2018

ANTHRO 217: Thinking Through Animals (ANTHRO 117)

The human-animal relationship is dynamic, all encompassing and durable. Without exception, all socio-cultural groups have evidenced complex interactions with the animals around them, both domesticated and wild. However, the individual circumstances of these interactions are hugely complicated, and involve much more than direct human-animal contact, going far beyond this to incorporate social, ecological and spiritual contexts. This course delves into this complexity, covering the gamut of social roles played by animals, as well as the methods and approaches to studying these, both traditional and scientific. While the notion of `animals as social actors¿ is well acknowledged, their use as proxies for human autecology (the relationship between a species and its environment) is also increasingly recognised as a viable mechanism for understanding our cultural and economic past. The module presents an overview covering a broad timespan from the Pleistocene to the modern day. It will piece together the breadth of human-animal relationships using a wide geographic range of case studies.
Last offered: Winter 2014

ANTHRO 217A: Stuff (ANTHRO 117A, ARCHLGY 117A)

Never before have humans been engulfed by so much stuff. Stuff is needed to survive giving us the basics of food, clothing, and shelter. But stuff does so much more. Smart phones rule our social interactions. Louis Vuitton handbags display status. Air conditioning masters nature. Picassos inspire beauty. Wedding bands promise eternal love. Crosses connect believers to God. Is stuff really who we are? This seminar explores the science of stuff, past, present and future, investigating deeply-held beliefs about the meaning, value, and purpose of objects. Because our stuff has become such a popular obsession, this course embraces the eclectic intersection of popular and academic knowledge. Students will seek to answer the complex whys of our relationship with objects and understand our future human condition made by the material world.
Last offered: Spring 2017
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