Click here for a listing of the current Semester's course offerings for Anthropology. (Fall 2011)
Note: This is a complete listing of all courses offered in the Department. Not all courses may be offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the Dedman College Graduate Catalog for a listing of current courses being taught.
5033. PROSEMINAR ON ETHICS IN ARCHAEOLOGY. Focuses on ethical issues in current archaeology, including collaboration with descendant communities, study of human remains, repatriation of cultural property, and research collaboration in international contexts.
5334. HISTORY OF ANTHROPOLOGY, PART I. Analytical history of anthropology, from the classical period to the 20th century. More than just what happened when, this course explains the content and development of theory, method, and interpretation. Prerequisite: Eighteen (18) hours of anthropology or permission of the instructor.
5335. HISTORY OF ANTHROPOLOGY, PART II. Development of modern anthropological paradigms, with intensive readings in science, ethnology, and ecological anthropology and a focus on the potential utility of theoretical coherence within the discipline. Prerequisite: 18 hours of Anthropology or permission of the instructor.
5336. ANTHROPOLOGY AND MEDICINE. Cross-cultural study of the cultural construction and social organization of medical systems in pre-industrial and industrialized societies, including political economy of health, ethnomedicine, international health, ethnopharmacology, and biothic. Prerequisite: Anthropology 2301 or 3301 or permission of the instructor.
5344. RESEARCH METHODS IN ETHNOLOGY. Examination of methodologies and techniques appropriate for different types of ethnological research. Prerequisites: Advanced standing and Anthropology 2301 (or permission of the instructor for non-anthropology majors).
5345. HUMAN DEMOGRAPHY. Examination of major features of population change, especially natality, morbidity, migration, and mortality.
5355. HISTORY OF ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE SOUTHWEST. This course will focus on the development of archaeology in the American Southwest by placing it in historical context, discussing the social role of archaeology in general, 19th-century exploration and the impact of early archaeological finds, development of museums, tourism, national monuments, field schools, and the changing role of the Native Americans.
5359 (ENGL 5371). LINGUISTICS: GENERAL. An introduction to modern linguistic science. Topics include phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, dialects, writing systems, child language, language and the brain, and language in education.
5381. FIELD METHODS IN ARCHAEOLOGY. Methods of excavation, recording, and interpretation used in archaeological research. Fort Burgwin Research Center. Summer only. Students may petition to have this course fulfill the Lab Science Requirement.
5382. FIELD METHODS IN ARCHAEOLOGY. Methods of excavation, recording, and interpretation used in archaeological research. Fort Burgwin Research Center. Summer only. Students may petition to have this course fulfill the Lab Science Requirement.
5681, 5981. FIELD METHODS IN ARCHAEOLOGY. Methods of excavation, recording, and interpretation used in archaeological research. Fort Burgwin Research Center. Summer only. Students may petition to have this course fulfill the Lab Science Requirement.
6034. TEACHING SEMINAR. Non-credit teaching seminar for graduate students.
6301. PRINCIPLES OF ARCHAEOLOGY. An advanced course in seminar form dealing with the fundamentals of modern archaeology.
6302. STATISTICS IN ANTHROPOLOGY. This is an introductory graduate-level course describing the specific use of quantitative and statistical methods in the subdisciplines of archaeology and cultural anthropology.
6303. POLITICAL ECONOMY OF HEALTH. Explores topics in health and healing from a political economy perspective. Addresses social and economic factors influencing culture change and health and healing practices within a society. Examines health inequities around the globe.
6304. MIGRATION, ETHNICITY, AND NATIONALISM. Examines three interrelated topics: migration, ethnicity, and nationalism. Focuses on major theoretical positions and specific ethnographic cases.
6305. APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY. The application of anthropological theories and methods to problems in contemporary societies, including global business, community development, health care issues, agricultural/environmental programs, urban planning, tourism projects, and education policy. Prerequisites: Advanced standing and Anthropology 2301 (or permission of the instructor for non-anthropology majors).
6306. ANTHROPOLOGY AND EDUCATION. The anthropological approach to the study of schools; how an anthropological framework can provide insight into the nature of education and classroom interaction.
6307. SEMINAR IN INTERNATIONAL HEALTH. Provides an overview of issues in international health with a focus on contributions of anthropology and anthropologists to international health issues.
6308. CHILDHOOD IN CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE. Cross-cultural examination of infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Comparative analysis of the process of enculturation in tribal, peasant, and modern societies. Prerequisite: Anthropology 2301 or 3303 or permission of the instructor.
6310. THE PREHISTORY OF THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST. Coverage of current theoretical and research topics in the prehistory of the American Southwest, including early human occupation, sedentism, community organization, and regional abandonments.
6311. APPLIED LINGUISTICS. Examination of linguistic theory and data in the context of diverse, especially multilingual, speech communities.
6314. ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE AMERICAN SOUTHEAST. Twelve thousand years of prehistory from different perspectives, including cultural evolution, social and ideological subsystems, and cultural parallels to Mexico.
6316. ADVANCED SEMINAR IN ETHNOLOGY I. Varying topics.
6317. ADVANCED SEMINAR IN ETHNOLOGY II. Varying topics.
6320. REGIONAL ETHNOGRAPHY. World-wide exploration of ethnography, exploring similarities in differences across time and space. Course prepares students to write their own regional papers in preparation for their qualifying exams.
6323. LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS. The techniques needed for linguistic field work: phonological, morphological, and syntactic analysis. Students are prepared to work with unwritten languages and in urban speech communities.
6327. GENDERED LIVES AND GLOBAL CHANGE. Analyze globalization and its impacts on gender relations and ideology. Examines the evolving relationship between capitalism and patriarchal social systems, focusing on theories of change in men's and women's lives.
6332. SPECIAL PROBLEMS IN ANTHROPOLOGY. Varying topics.
6333. LABORATORY ANALYSIS. This course will introduce students to the identification, analysis, and interpretation of archaeological materials recovered during the SMU Summer Field School program, including stone tools, pottery, faunal remains, and sediments. Students will be responsible for quantification and written summation of results. Field school students are required to take 4333 or 6333 as part of their field school experience, but the course is open to all students whether or not they have taken the summer field school. No prerequisites.
6334. ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE LOWER/MIDDLE PLEISTOCENE. Survey of human cultural remains within their contemporary environments, between ca. 2.6 million years ago and the last Ice Age onset ca. 70,000. Covers latest finds from Africa, Europe, and Asia.
6335. UPPER PLEISTOCENE PREHISTORY. Examination of cultural development in the Old World from the onset of Wurm to the end of the Pleistocene. Emphasis on adaptive strategies and systematics of such studies.
6336. POST-PLEISTOCENE ADAPTATION. Provides the background of major cultural change following the end of the last glacial period by examining archaeological and related literature from the environmental sciences.
6337. ORIGINS OF COMLPEX SOCIETY. Surveys the archaeology evidence for the initial rise of civilization. Emphasis is placed on the major facts of culture history; the archaeological problems peculiar to investigation of large-scale societies; and cross-cultural, evolutionary interpretations of the general phenomenon of pre-industrial civilization.
6338. PALEOLITHIC ARCHAEOLOGY. Surveys the evidence for the origins and dispersal of stone tool-using hunter-gatherers from Africa to Europe, Asia and Australia, up to the end of the last Ice Age.
6339. ANTHROPOLOGY AND NEOLITHIC ARCHAEOLOGY. Surveys the evidence for the origins and the dispersal of early farming technology and social organization from the Near East into [mainly] Europe, but also Africa and Asia, up to the introduction of metalworking.
6342. SCIENCE AND THE HUMAN PAST. Uses of biological and physical sciences in archaeology: site discovery, dating, prehistoric ecology, diet, and technology. Prerequisite: Anthropology 2363 or approval of the instructor.
6343. HEALTH AND MEDICAL SYSTEMS. Systems analysis of traditional, popular, and scientific medical practice; examination of medical bureaucracies and the relationship of health care to other social institutions.
6344. GLOBAL POPULATION PROCESSES: ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES. Focuses on an anthropological understanding of population processes in a global context. Addresses some of the major global population processes--nuptiality, fertility, mortality, migration--and examines them within historical and cross-cultural frameworks.
6345. HUMAN DEMOGRAPHY. Examination of major features of population change, especially natality, morbidity, migration, and mortality.
6347. SEMINAR IN MESO-AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY. Provides an understanding of contemporary Meso-America by examining the literature and field data from anthropological and interdisciplinary viewpoints.
6351, 6352, 6353, 6354, 6355, 6156, 6256. RESEARCH IN ANTHROPOLOGY.
6357. AN INTRODUCTION TO STATISTICS IN ANTHROPOLOGY. An introductory graduate-level course describing the specific use of quantitative and statistical methods in the sub field of archaeology.
6363. TRANSFORMING LOCAL COMMUNITIES IN A GLOBAL AGE. Examination of local communities in light of theories about local/global relations. Case studies consider how global issues transform local community practices in the United States and elsewhere.
6367. COMPARATIVE PEASANT SOCIETY. Economic and social institutions of contemporary peasant societies are examined with special focus upon the changes they are undergoing in the 20th century. Prerequisite: Anthropology 2301 or permission of the instructor.
6368. NORTH AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY. Prehistory from the peopling of the New World through initial contacts with European civilization; regional sequences and ecological changes.
6371. THE NATURE OF AGING PROCESSES. General considerations and theories of aging in various populations; factors affecting aging, mental and psychomotor abilities in aging, aging of biological systems, nutrition and metabolism of aged populations; body composition changes and aging; physical activity effect on aging; diseases of aging; and rehabilitation of the aged.
6377. THE HUMAN FOSSIL RECORD. An examination of morphology, classification, and evolutionary relationships in the human fossil record. Covers the Pliocene through the emergence of modern Homo sapiens. Comparisons using the departmental fossil collection. Prerequisite: Anthropology 2315 or permission of the instructor.
6384. GLOBAL ISSUES AND DEVELOPMENT: AN OVERVIEW. An introduction to the major forces driving globalization and economic development today, analyzing how these forces impact the lives, cultures, and identities of peoples around the world (with an emphasis on the developing world). Prerequisites: Advanced standing and Anthropology 2301 (or permission of the instructor for non-anthropology majors).
6386. THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF GENDER AND SEXUALITY. This course will explore how and why archaeologists study gender and sexual identities in the past and discover the diversity in these institutions across cultures through time.
6390, 6391. CURRENT ISSUES IN ANTHROPOLOGY. Seminar on selected topics.
6398, 6399. THESIS.
7000. RESEARCH.
7312. ARCHAEOLOGY OF MESO-AMERICA. Seminar on archaeological evidence for prehistoric civilization of Mexico.
7313. ARCHAEOLOGICAL THEORY. Logical and rational structure of discourse in archaeology. Evaluation of the quality of arguments, propositions, and constructs based on archaeological information.
7314. PREHISTORY OF SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA. Seminar on Stone Age and early Iron Age archaeology. Emphasis on critical analysis of typological and regional sequences.
7315. PREHISTORY OF EUROPE. Survey of Paleolithic archaeology. Includes western Russia. Emphasis on lithic technology and paleo-environment with critical analysis of interpretations.
7316. PREHISTORY OF NORTH AFRICA AND THE NILE VALLEY. Seminar on the prehistoric range of human occupation up to the earliest literate period.
7317. ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH STRATEGIES. An examination of the logistics and strategies used in project development and field work, through project completion. Emphasis is upon individual student problems.
7318. LATE PLEISTOCENE PREHISTORY OF NORTH AMERICA. Seminar on the late Pleistocene human occupation of North America from the time of initial colonization, with an emphasis on paleoclimates, paleoenvironments, and human adaptations.
7321. CERAMIC ANALYSIS FOR ARCHAEOLOGISTS. Examination of procedures for analyzing ceramic artifacts, with special attention to problems of style, typology, dating, and provenience.
7331. PREHISTORY OF SOUTHWEST ASIA. Intensive examination of the theory and data of Near Eastern prehistory from earliest times through the development of the Neolithic.
7333. DATA ANALYSIS FOR CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY. In this course, students explore various methods of data analysis using their own data sets or those of a member of the faculty. The class combines lecture and discussion with hands-on applications. Prerequisites: Anthropology 5344 and Anthropology 6302 (or Statistics equivalent) or permission of the instructor.
7341. CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGICAL LITERATURE. Varied readings in numerous ethnological journals will be surveyed. Students will report their findings orally and in written form.
7342. SEMINAR IN SOCIAL ORGANIZATION. A seminar on kinship and social organization in both traditional and more contemporary societies focusing on various theoretical approaches to the understanding of social structure.
7351. RESEARCH STRATEGIES IN ETHNOLOGY. Consideration of theoretical and practical aspects of field work: preparation for research, conduct in the field, and data analysis.