Fall 2018

This course introduces students to the varied peoples and cultures in the Caribbean region, including the historical, colonial, and contemporary political-economic contexts, as well as the religious, migratory, and other cultural practices. The Caribbean is composed of several islands united by the experiences of indigenous decimation, European colonization, and re-population...

The earliest civilizations on earth were found in such diverse settings as Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley of Pakistan, China, Mexico and Central America, and Andean South America. These civilizations had huge cities’ powerful rulers, fascinating religious beliefs, and elaborate temples and palaces. In this course, we will study the...

What does it mean to think anthropologically? This course will provide an overview of the history and foundations of anthropological thought, with a special focus on the key method of anthropology: ethnography. Drawing on both classical and contemporary anthropological texts from a broad range of international settings, we will analyze...

Where did human beings come from? How did we come to inhabit the world? Why don’t we eat wild foods anymore? How did complex urban societies rise and fall? All this and more….. Professor Douglas Bamforth See the University Catalog for specifics, recommendations, and prerequisites.

While we humans tend to focus on ourselves, the goal of this course is to examine the natural history and behavior of your closest relatives, the nonhuman primates. Through lectures, streaming videos and web based materials, you will explore the diversity of primates from an evolutionary, biological and ecological perspective...

What does it mean to be multiracial? How are people of mixed heritage seen throughout the world? Who is mixed? Who is not? In the United States, how does being bi/multiracial play into the narrative of a post-racial society? This course will apply an anthropological perspective to mixed race identities...

The courses you have taken in biological anthropology at CU have been developed to give you an understanding of the current state of knowledge in the discipline as well as a sufficient understanding of the terms and methodology to allow you to acquire and critically evaluate relevant new information. This...

This course examines the Prehispanic cultures of Mexico including the Aztec, Olmec, Zapotec, Mixtec, and Chatino. We trace cultural developments in Mexico over the last 12,000 years by examining social organization, ideology, daily life, religion, art, writing, subsistence, technology, and exchange. The course considers some of the most important transitions...

In this course you will learn the various ways archaeologists use whole and broken pottery pieces to reconstruct the past. We will survey some of the most interesting recent findings and learn how to analyze pottery using museum collections. Topics we will cover include how archaeologists classify pottery, how pottery...

This is a demanding upper-level cultural (and medical) anthropology course designed for advanced undergraduate and early graduate students interested in the intersections of science and the production of knowledge, the practice of medicine, and the effects on the health of diverse populations. The course uses a case study approach and...