ANTH - Anthropology

ANTH 1105. Cultural Anthropology (3-0-3) A comparative, descriptive, non-technical study of non-literate folk societies. Topics include: basic institutions; value systems; the nature of culture, its content, patterns and changes; the impact of the cultural milieu on socialization and personality development.

​ANTH 1107. Discovering Archaeology (3-0-3) Emphasizes scientific techniques and methodologies employed by archaeologists to reconstruct extinct cultures and lifeways, stages of archaeological investigation from hypothesis development to data interpretation, and heritage conservation. Provides opportunity for students to critically contrast the scientific nature of archeology with pop and pseudo-archaeology popularized by media.

ANTH 1145. Human Origins (3-0-3) A survey of modern scientific evidence and thought on the biological origins of modern humans. Topics included are early human and primate ancestors, their fossil record, modern evolutionary theory, and techniques of dating early human and primate remains.

ANTH 2105. Ancient World Civilizations (3-0-3) Course traces rise of world's first major civilizations from emergence of Homo sapiens to the advent of written history. The emergence of food production, social inequality, cities and conquest states in each world area will be examined, as will the major anthropological theories devised to explain them. Emphasized is diversity of world civilizations, the variety of paths to civilization taken around the globe, and especially "non-western" civilizations of sub-Saharan Africa, the Far East and the Americas.

ANTH 2136. Language and Culture (3-0-3) A study of the relationship between language and culture in multilingual and multicultural societies throughout the world. Topics include: language practices (i.e. name giving in Africa, oral tradition of the Caribbean, use of proverbs), language attitudes towards dialects, multilingualism and identity, the immigrant experience, effects of language contact (i.e., language mixing and borrowing), and language planning and choice in multilingual societies.

ANTH 2137. Languages of the World (3-0-3) A survey of languages spoken in different regions of the world, including Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe. Students will examine similarities and differences in sounds, words, sentences/grammar, and writing systems of a variety of languages. Students will learn about grouping of languages into language families.

ANTH 3125. People and Cultures of Africa (3-0-3)Prerequisite: ANTH 1105. Utilizing both ethnographic studies and contemporary surveys, this course provides an overview of the African continent, its archaeology, prehistory, and culture history, but with a focus on the great diversity of contemporary cultures and the impact of modern political and economic developments since 1960, i.e., the post-colonial era. The course concludes with a look at contemporary efforts to maintain cultural traditions in the context of rapid technological change, the penetration of Western cultures and the disruptions brought by processes of economic globalization.

ANTH 3126. History of Anthropological Thought (3-0-3)Prerequisite: ANTH 1105. Anthropology is the study of humankind in its entirety, and it has a long, contentious history of development as a discipline. Theories have come and gone into and out of fashion, often paralleling social changes and mores in their countries of origin. What began as speculation by Greek scholars eventually resulted in a rigorous science, only face harsh criticism from time to time for "de-humanizing" its subject matter. Some anthropologists wish to focus on Culture and the wide sweep of its "evolution, while others feel we must gather data on the histories of individual cultures down to the level of minutia. Regardless of how they have tried to go about it, anthropologists have always wanted to know what makes cultures "tick." In particular, what makes them change, or what makes them choose to change. What do we all have in common as humans, and what is the best way to unlock the black box that culture appears at times to resemble.

ANTH 4107. Evolution of Social Stratification and Inequality (3-0-3) Prerequisite: ANTH 1105. An examination of social inequality, the long-term evolution of increasingly complex social hierarchies, and social stratification (based on class, estate, caste) throughout history. Features a historical review of anthropological theories devised to track and characterize levels of social inequality, and to identify the forces and processes that build and maintain status hierarchies. Ethnographic literature will be used to illustrate cases where access to high status is based upon such varied factors as kin relations, gender, ethnicity, wealth, and social prestige.

ANTH 4698.  Internship in Anthropology (3-6)Prerequisite: ANTH 1107 with a minimum grade of A.  Offers students closely directed hands-on learning and practical experience in the many aspects of anthropological research. Usually involves participation in faculty ethnographic, biological, archaeological and/or museum-related research. May involve project design, field work, laboratory work museum curation and/or project administrative tasks.

ANTH 4899. Independent Study (1-6) Prerequisite: Department Chair Approval. May be taken up to four times for a maximum of six semester hours.

ANTH 5115. Religion, Culture and Society (3-0-3)Prerequisite: ANTH 1105. An overview of major sociological and anthropological studies of the structure, function and evolution of religious thought and behavior including contributions of Marx and Engels, Durkheim, Weber, Freud, Malinowski, Levi-Strauss, Marvin Harris, Clifford Geertz and many others. Religion will be studied as an aspect of human sociocultural systems with political, economic and psychological implications and that has cognitive, emotional, social and moral components. This will be based on efforts at classification of types, comparison and contrasts of belief systems, ritual and myth.

ANTH 5116. Lab Methods in Archaeology (1-4-3)Prerequisite: ANTH 1105 or ANTH 1106 with minimum grade of B. Students learn how artifacts and other field samples are processed before they finally come to rest in a museum or other repository; emphasizes the importance of precision and thoroughness required to properly conserve, analyze and curate a broad variety of material culture and documentation for perpetuity using standardized, state-of-the-art techniques.

ANTH 5125. Human Ecology (3-0-3)Prerequisite: One of the following: ANTH 1105, 1106, 1145, or 5175; ENVS 1105 or ENVS 6207; or Department Approval. Course provides an inter-disciplinary perspective blending biological ecology with social science approaches to examine the interrelationships between human societies and their environments. Problems examined include past and present intellectual frameworks, population ecology, environmental stressors, human subsistence strategies, processes of cultural and environmental change. Course aims to provide basic tools that will help students evaluate problematic human-environment relationships in order to confront them effectively.

ANTH 5126. Culture and the Environment (3-0-3)Prerequisite: ANTH 1105, 1106, 1145, or 5175; ENVS 1105 or ENVS 6207; or Departmental approval. This course explores how societies in the past have not only adapted to their environments, but how they have manipulated and transformed their ecosystems, and how these processes in turn have shaped economic, demographic, political, social, and ideological, aspects of human populations. Using both case studies and theoretical literature, we will examine the emergence and history of ecological thinking in anthropology, the development of various theoretical approaches, and major controversies, many of which remain unresolved today.

ANTH 5175. Physical Anthropology and Archeology (3-0-3)Prerequisite: Junior standing. A survey of primate and human origins, the paleontological record of human evolution and the study of Paleolithic cultures and the diverse biologies of modern human populations. Course work will include techniques of lithic archeology and focus on North American native prehistory.

ANTH 5305. Field Methods in Archaeology (0-12-4)Prerequisite: Approval of Department Chair. First-hand experience in data recovery methods in archaeology either in the greater Columbus and western Georgia, or in Latin America. Students will learn methods of archaeological site survey, site recording and surface mapping, excavation and field laboratory documentation. (Course fee required.)

ANTH 5375. Physical Anthropology Laboratory (0-2-1)Prerequisite or Corequisite: ANTH 5175.  Laboratory to accompany ANTH 5175.  The purpose is to provide detailed anatomical and analytical information and skills for students who wish to better understand the morphology of human evolution and history. Also included are techniques of forensic anthropology and insights into the genetic basis and detailed morphologies of modern human variability.

ANTH 5515. Selected Topics in Anthropology (3-0-3)Prerequisite: ANTH 1105. Examination of selected topics in anthropology. Topics will vary, with no topic repeated over four consecutive semesters to accommodate students earning a minor in anthropology. May be repeated for credit when topic is different.

ANTH 5555. Selected Topics in Archaeology (3-0-3) Examination of selected topics in archaeology. Topics will vary, with no topic repeated over four consecutive semesters to accommodate students earning a minor in anthropology. May be repeated for credit when topic is different.