Introduction to Anthropology

This course is divided into ten topical units designed to introduce you to the discipline of anthropology through an examination of its three sub-fields: biological anthropology, archaeology, and socio-cultural anthropology. During the term you will study human evolution, race, prehistory, cultural ecology, political and economic anthropology, cross-cultural comparision, human religion and the history of anthropology. The Mukogodo peoples of Kenya, East Africa will be examined as a case study in anthropological fieldwork. This course should provide you with skills and understandings that will prove useful and important to you as an educated person regardless of your major or the profession you are preparing to follow. Four examinations will be given during the term. Each of these examinations will consist of 68 multiple choice questions. Twenty-five to 35 percent of these questions will be drawn from the lectures; the remainder will be taken from the assigned readings.


University Core Curriculum Course (Social Sciences).

Introduction to Archaeology

This course is divided into 18 topical units designed to introduce you to the sciences of archaeology, prehistory and paleoecology. During the term you will study the evolution of the hominids, the development of agriculture, the emergence of cities and states in prehistory and the rise of civilization in ancient Egypt. This course should provide you with skills and understandings that will prove useful and important to you as an educated person regardless of your major or the profession you are preparing to follow. Four examinations will be given during the term. Each of these examinations will consist of 68 multiple choice questions. Twenty-five to 35 percent of these questions will be drawn from the lectures; the remainder will be taken from the assigned readings.

University Core Curriculum Course (Humanities).

Emergence of the Modern World System

The aim of this course is to apply the anthropological perspective to the examination of the rise of the modern worldsystem. The modern worldsystem is the single, expanding world-scale economy that has become progressively more global in scope during the last four to six hundred years of human history. This world-economy is characterized by a (1) single division and integration of labor and (2) a single set of accumulation-processes. As a consequence, at any given time, the world-economy may be viewed as consisting of two complementary portions: a relatively advanced 'core' region and its always less advanced “periphery.” Core and periphery are economic regions; in world-systems studies, their political makeup is considered to be of secondary importance. For example, in understanding the worldsystem during the 17th century, the core-region of “northwestern Europe” is a key unit of analysis, the nation-states of Holland, Britain, and France are of secondary interest. Finally, the core and the periphery of the worldsystem have both enlarged and shifted geographically through time. Three examinations will be given during the term and three “reaction papers” written on assigned topics will be required.

Indians of North America

This course is divided into 16 topical units designed to introduce you to the prehistory, history, cultural ecology, and anthropology of the native peoples of North America. Regardless of your major or the profession you are preparing to follow, this course should provide you with skills and understandings that will prove useful and important to you as an educated person. Classes will be devoted to slide lectures and group discussions with occasional movie presentations. You will be expected to critically read the assigned books and articles and analyze and synthesize this material in light of classroom lectures. Three examinations will be given during the term and three "reaction papers" written on assigned topics will be required. You will also be required to (1) participate in a one-half day field trip to Caddoan Mounds State Historic Park near Alto, Texas on one Saturday during the term and (2) to attend the screening of the feature-length film, Black Robe on one evening.

University Core Curriculum Course (Humanities).

Archaeology of the Old World.

This course is divided into 19 topical units designed to introduce you to the archaeology, prehistory, and paleoecology of Africa, Europe and Asia from the evolution of the hominids to the development of agriculture and the rise of civilization. Classes will be devoted to slide lectures and group discussions with occasional movie presentations. You will be expected to critically read the assigned books and articles and analyze and synthesize this material in light of classroom lectures. Three examinations will be given during the term and three "reaction papers" written on assigned topics will be required.

University Core Curriculum Course (Humanities).

Anthropology of Religion

This course is divided into 17 topical units designed to introduce you to the anthropological study of religion and to the relationship between religion, economics, politics and social structure. Classes will be devoted to lectures and group discussions. You will be expected to critically read the assigned books and articles and analyze and synthesize this material in light of classroom lectures and discussions. Three examinations will be given during the term and an original research paper, neither less than five nor more than 15 typewritten pages in length, will be required. In this research paper you must either: (1) test a hypothesis about religion by cross-cultural comparison using the 60 world cultures in the "Probability Sample" of the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF), or (2) develop a "categorization," that is, a set of operationalized definitions, for any subcategory of the HRAF files that deals with religion. The Human Relations Area Files are located in the Microtext Department of the Sterling Evans Library. You will also be required to attend the screening of three feature-length films that deal with religion including Black Robe, Kundun and The Crucible.

University Core Curriculum Course (Humanities).

Rise of Civilization

This course is divided into eight topical units designed to introduce you to the anthropological perspective on the origins of the primary civilizations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley and the Gangetic plain, North China, Mesoamerica and Andean South America. Classes are devoted to slide lectures and group discussions with occasional movie presentations. Students are expected to critically read the assigned books and articles and analyze and synthesize this material in light of classroom lectures. Three examinations will be given during the term and three "reaction papers" written on assigned topics will be required.

University Core Curriculum Course (Humanities).

Archaeological Method and Theory

This course is meant to stimulate the use of higher order thinking and reasoning in the acquisition and communication of new knowledge about the past. It is divided into six topical units designed to provide you with a firm graduate-level grounding in the origins, theoretical underpinnings and methodology of modern scientific archaeology and prehistory. Classes will be conducted in seminar format with a strong emphasis placed on discussion and disputation. Three research papers will be required during the term and each student will be asked to present his or her results from one of these papers in class following a professional meeting format. A comprehensive final will be given at the close of the course. In this course I expect you to: (1) critically read all of the assigned articles and books, (2) analyze and synthesize these materials and (3) take an active part in classroom discussion of it. Grades for the three papers and the final will constitute 80% of your final grade. The quality of your formal presentation and my overall evaluation of your performance in classroom discussion will constitute the remaining 20% of your grade.

Violence and Warfare

This course is divided into 14 topical units designed to introduce graduate students to the anthropological study of violence and warfare and the place of these phenomena in cultural evolution, religion, economics, politics and social structure. Classes will be devoted to group discussions, in-class writing exercises, and lectures with occasional film and power point slide presentations. Students will be expected to critically read the assigned books and articles and analyze and synthesize this material in light of classroom discussions and lectures. Students will also be required to attend the screening of four feature-length films. A cross-cultural research paper, neither less than ten nor more than twenty typewritten pages in length, will also be required. This paper must test a hypothesis about violence and/or warfare against 24 world cultures randomly-selected from the 60-cultures that make up the “HRAF Probability Sample” in the electronic data base of the Human Relations Area Files. A take-home, mid-term examination will be given during the term. There will also be a comprehensive, in-class final examination at the conclusion of the course.