Undergraduate Course Listing

An introduction to the history, theory, methods, and findings of cultural anthropology and the ethnographic study of contemporary peoples' ways of living and thinking. Through in-depth encounters with several of the world's cultures through ethnographies, this course provides a cross-cultural understanding of humankind. Prerequisite: 3.0 university credits.

The course looks at varieties of human expression-both verbal and nonverbal-as communicative practices that connect persons together to form a common culture. Discussion is centered on particular case studies and ethnographic examples of contemporary communicative practices and the forms of culture that emerge in the modern world. Prerequisite: 3.0 university credits.

An overview of articulatory and instrumental phonetics, including the mechanics of speech production, the accurate transcription of speech in any language, and the use of instruments to study the physical nature of speech sounds. Students learn all characters and values of the International Phonetic Alphabet, an indispensable tool for linguistic study and research. Prerequisite: LING 1000Y or 1002H (or MODL 1000Y or 1001H). Excludes MODL 2010H.

Cross-listed: LING-2010H

An introduction to the origin, development, and diversity of technologies in human prehistory and ethnology. Includes archaeological, biological, cultural, and linguistic anthropological perspectives on the role of technologies in human evolution and culture change. Offered only at Trent University Durham GTA

Archaeology aims to reconstruct and explain the evolution of cultural behaviour in humans. This course surveys major topics in archaeology beginning with the earliest records of human culture to the emergence and expansion of agricultural societies.

A comparative survey of how archaeologists have documented and interpreted the evidence related to the emergence of proto-urban and urban settlements, city-states, and empires. Major themes addressed include political and social organization, craft production, art, religion, trade and exchange, social elites, and military power.

Introduces students to the ways archaeologists obtain data to build knowledge of the past. Students are provided with a critical appreciation and understanding of a representative range of methods used in archaeological survey, excavation and in post-excavation analysis.

An exploration of archaeological science (dating techniques, isotopic analysis, ancient DNA, material characterization) through case studies with an emphasis on the articulation of scientific techniques and archaeological research questions. Themes explored include human origins, diet, migration, status, and trade. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits.

The methods and achievements of archaeologists and the art history of Egypt from the period of the Pharaohs, through the Persians and the Greeks to the Romans. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits.

Cross-listed: AHCL-2201H

An introduction to the major sites, monuments, and artefacts of ancient Greece from the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic Period, focusing on how material remains are used to reconstruct various aspects of ancient society. Topics include art and architecture, trade and exchange, religion, burial customs, economy, and state formation. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits.

Cross-listed: AHCL-2205H

An introduction to Roman material culture from the Iron Age through the Late Empire. Topics include the development of a distinctively Roman culture, the influence of the Greek world, the spread of Roman imperialism, the impact of Christianity, and the continuing relevance of Roman institutions in modern society. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits.

Cross-listed: AHCL-2206H

Students learn about the roles of evolution, disease, and death in shaping modern human and non-human primate biology, behaviour, and distribution. Students learn more about research methods and applications of this research. Topics covered include evolution, infectious disease, growth and development, forensic anthropology, skeletal anatomy, and nutrition. Prerequisite: ANTH 1001H (or 1010H) or permission of instructor.

Focuses on the origins of plagues and the biological and social impact of major epidemics, past and present, on human societies. Themes explored include the role of human behaviour in the outbreak of disease, responses to epidemics, and human evolution and disease. Prerequisite: ANTH 2410H or permission of instructor.

A general survey of the Order Primates, focusing on their history, classification, distribution, ecology, and behaviour within an evolutionary/adaptive context, with emphasis on the comparisons of non-human primates with the human species. Prerequisite: ANTH 1001H (or 1010H). Not open to students with credit for ANTH-BIOL 3470H

Cross-listed: BIOL-2470H

An interdisciplinary and comparative analysis of the impact of transformations in the world food system on contemporary agrarian societies. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of instructor. Excludes IDST-ANTH 2210Y.

Cross-listed: IDST-2500H, SOCI-2500H, GEOG-2500H, SAFS-2500H

An examination of the impact of processes of commodification, market integration, and globalization on the social organization of food-producing rural communities in developing countries. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits or permission of instructor. Excludes IDST-ANTH 2210Y.

Cross-listed: IDST-2600H, SOCI-2600H, SAFS-2600H

An introduction to methods and techniques of discovery, analysis, and interpretation in a field situation in any one sub-discipline (archaeology, cultural, physical, or linguistic anthropology). Summers only- confirm with the department office. Limited enrolment. Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.

Geophysics is the study of geologic properties, processes and phenomena using non-destructive physical and mathematical methods, including reflection and refraction seismology, gravity and magnetics, and electrical and electromagnetic methods. This course emphasizes how geophysical techniques can be used for resource and archeological exploration, climate change detection, and environmental investigations. Prerequisite: PHYS 1001H or 1.0 MATH credit. Typically offered every other year.

Cross-listed: EGEO-3001H, FRSC-3001H

Buddhism is based in a canonical tradition. Buddhist practice, however, is embedded in- transformed by and transforming-local contexts. We explore ethnographic accounts of how the ideas of Siddhartha (The Buddha) variously exist in different cultural and social contexts. Prerequisite: ANTH 2001H or 9.0 university credits including ANTH 1020H or permission of instructor

Cross-culturally, people voluntarily go on journeys. In this course we consider the range, reasons, and cultural contexts of these journeys. Prerequisite: ANTH 2001H or permission of instructor.

Covers the archaeology of North America, from Paleoindians through the nineteenth century. Subjects include the shift from hunting and foraging to agriculture, the development of complexity, trade relationships and interregional interaction, shifting religious beliefs and practices, and the consequences of European contact and settlement. Prerequisite: ANTH 2121H and 2122H or permission of instructor.

Examines the history of archaeological thought and practice, in addition to addressing archaeology's role in the contemporary world. Topics may include those related to evolution, the environment, health, identity, race, ethnicity, gender, urbanism, repatriation, and ethics, in addition to current and emerging debates in the discipline. Prerequisite: ANTH-AHCL 1030H and ANTH 2123H or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for ANTH 3100Y.

The description and analysis of materials from archaeological contexts, including stone tools, bone tools, shell, and ecofacts. This course focuses on hands-on analysis of materials. Fundamental techniques of recording and cataloguing, such as drawing and photography of artifacts, are taught throughout. Prerequisite: ANTH 2121H and 2122H or permission of instructor.

Introduces students to basic methods for analyzing of archaeological ceramics and historic artifacts, focusing on ceramic technology and the production of glass and metal artifacts as technologies that transform raw materials into new substances. Prerequisite: ANTH 2121H and 2122H or permission of instructor

Ancient biomolecules (proteins, lipids, DNA), the conditions under which they preserve, how they are isolated and analyzed. Topics include stable isotopes, ancient DNA, proteomics, and organic residue analysis. Labs provide students with hands-on experience with techniques commonly used in archaeological science (emphasis on bone chemistry). Prerequisite: ANTH 2150H, or 2.5 ANTH credits and three of BIOL 1020H, BIOL 1030H, CHEM 1000H, GEOG 1040H, or PHYS 1001H.

Cross-listed: BIOL-3153H, FRSC-3153H

From tiny coral atolls to lush jungles to vast deserts, this course explores the diverse peoples of Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, and Australia. Topics include the prehistoric occupation of the islands, regional patterns in human biology, language, and culture, and the ethnography of several specific groups. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits.

In ancient Greece and Rome, exclusionary rituals and secretive initiation cults like those of Dionysos, Mithras, Isis, and Christianity overturned entrenched social norms and threatened the cohesion of the state. Archaeological and written evidence provide evidence for the origins, impact, and legacy of such practices in the ancient Mediterranean. Prerequisite: 8.0 university credits including both AHCL 2102H and 2105H or both ANTH-AHCL 2205H and 2206H.

Cross-listed: AHCL-3222H, HIST-3222H

The study of material signs in their social context, including all forms of nonverbal human communication. Topics include any material objects as signs, including houses, commodities, embodied performances and rituals; anything that can be considered to act as a sign. Current topic: the semiotics of human-plant interactions and gardens. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits.

A focused study of a particular topic in the study of Mediterranean archaeology. Topics change from year to year but will focus on some aspect of the material record of the cultures surrounding the Mediterranean Basin from the end of the Late Bronze Age to the fall of the Roman Empire. Prerequisite: ANTH-AHCL 2205H.

Cross-listed: AHCL-3255H

Although cultures are diverse, people of all cultures die. We explore the questions of death from the perspectives of many cultures as interpreted by anthropologists. In light of this cross-cultural examination, we ask what it means to be "mortal." Prerequisite: ANTH 2001H or permission of instructor

An exploration of how anthropologists have approached phenomena such as witchcraft, shamanism, ritual, and myth as a way of understanding the epistemologies and cosmologies of people in diverse cultural contexts. Prerequisite: ANTH 2001H or permission of instructor.

Covers the basic issues involved in situating diverse languages within diverse cultures and societies, placing the study of genres or ways of speaking in socio-cultural contexts of use, attending to the way people's ideas about what language is and what it is for shape the ways they speak. Prerequisite: 3.0 university credits. Not open to students with credit for ANTH 2311H

Cross-listed: MDST-3311H

A lab-based introduction to the anatomy and biology of the human skeleton. Topics include basic skeletal anatomy, bone biology and development, the functional morphology of bones, identification of complete and fragmentary bones, and skeletal pathology. Prerequisite: ANTH 2410H.

Cross-listed: BIOL-3404H, FRSC-3404H

An introduction to forensic anthropology. Focuses on the methods used by forensic anthropologists to analyze unidentified skeletal remains, including sex determination, age estimation, stature estimation, assessment of ancestry, and identification of trauma and pathology. Prerequisite: ANTH-BIOL-FRSC 3404H.

Cross-listed: FRSC-3405H

A survey of the human life course through a bio-cultural lens, focusing on life history theory, demography, growth and development, adaptive human biology, determinants of health, and aging. The human species on the individual and population levels is seen as a product of evolutionary and biological forces, and of culture and society. Prerequisite: ANTH 1001H (or both 1010H and 1020H) or permission of instructor

Cross-listed: BIOL-3460H

Examines the act of burial from an archaeological perspective. We focus on temporal trends in mortuary customs from Neandertals to modern humans. Gender, age, ethnic, and social differences in burial patterns are also explored. Prerequisite: ANTH 2001H or 2410H or both 2121H and 2122H, or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for ANTH-AHCL 4410H

Explores the spatial dimension of archaeological data and its relationship to ecology and human behaviour. Approaches to the distributions of artifacts and sites, the organization of buildings and settlements, and the interactions between cultures are discussed. Both techniques of analysis and interpretative concepts are presented. Prerequisite: ANTH 2121H and 2122H or permission of instructor.

Explores the spatial dimension of archaeological data and its relationship to ecology and human behaviour. Approaches to the distributions of artifacts and sites, the organization of buildings and settlements, and the interactions between cultures are discussed. Both techniques of analysis and interpretive concepts are presented. Prerequisite: ANTH 2121H and 2122H (or 2120Y), or permission of instructor.

Focuses on the concepts and methods used by archaeologists to investigate the long-term interactions between humans and the environment. Explores the wide diversity of approaches (geomorphology, paleobotany, archaeozoology, paleoentomology, and isotopic analyses) developed over the years in order to sharpen our understanding of past human-environment dynamics. Prerequisite: ANTH 1001H (or both 1010H and 1020H); or ERSC 1010H and 1020H; or permission of instructor

Cross-listed: ERSC-3680H

Introduces the analysis and interpretation of animal remains in archaeological sites. Students become familiar with the interpretation of faunal assemblages and learn through hands-on practice and discussions to think critically about the implications that can be drawn from these remains. Limited enrolment. Prerequisite: ANTH 2121H or 2122H or 2410H or permission of instructor.

Focuses on worlds creating in playable media (games), including both massively multiple online games (MMOGs) and tabletop role-playing games. "Virtual" society is now an increasingly taken-for-granted aspect of everyday sociality. This course develops tools and theories for the study of virtual worlds, online and offline. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits.

Cross-listed: COIS-3745H, MDST-3745H

Drinks and drinking as meaningful and material forms pervade all social life. This course explores ethnographically the way the materiality of specific drinks-water (tap, mineral, purified), coffee, gin, wine, vodka, beer-serves as a social medium in specific times and places. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits.

Cross-listed: SAFS-3746H

Explores various intersections of language and media from an anthropological perspective, in this case the comparison of writing systems and the different purposes to which writing is put as a material medium from lists inscribed on clay to bamboo love letters. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits.

Cross-listed: MDST-3747H

Explores anthropologically the concept of animation-the attribution of human agency and life to nonhumans or media forms that create such an "illusion of life"-covering animated nonhumans from religious images, dolls, puppets, automatons, and robots to animated characters and brand mascots across different animated media (cel animation, rotoscopy, stop-motion, puppetry). Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits.

Cross-listed: CUST-3748H, MDST-3748H

Examines the linguistic, semiotic, and cultural constitution of figures of otherness or "alterity" that both define the boundaries and provide inverted images of societies and languages, paying particular attention to figures of monstrous alterity, both physical and linguistic monstrosity, and various dimensions of difference. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits

Examines classic issues in the anthropology of food. We focus on etiquette of food consumption, food and sex, food and religion and morality, food exchange and preparation, vegetarianism and meat eating, and cannibalism. Prerequisite: ANTH 2001H or permission of instructor.

Cross-listed: SAFS-3820H

This course explores labor in cobalt mines, cell phone factories, oil extraction, and junk yards, and how this kind of labour facilitates office work in other parts of the world. We also study how animals and insects are often collaborators in human work. Prerequisite: ANTH 2001H.

Explores a practice at the center of human life everywhere: mobility. Explores how practices of mobility vary widely according to culture and historical period. Considers how people use their bodies as vehicles, and other vehicles and infrastructures of movement or its obstruction. Prerequisite: ANTH 2001H.

Structured thematically, this course surveys the principal theoretical developments in the discipline. Prerequisite: ANTH 2001H

Covers research design, field methods, ethics, styles of ethnographic writing, and ongoing critical debates about methodology. Prerequisite: ANTH 2001H or permission of instructor.

Students gain practical experience in the processes of scholarly investigations and dissemination of findings by engaging in the ongoing research project of the instructor. Prerequisite: 10.0 university credits, including AHCL course(s) to be specified on a course-by-course basis

Cross-listed: AHCL-4003H

An advanced research seminar in which students engage and contribute to a research question or theme defined by the course instructor. Topics vary by year and instructor. Prerequisite: 10.0 university credits and permission of instructor.

An advanced research seminar in which students engage and contribute to a research question or theme defined by the course instructor. Topics vary by year and instructor. Prerequisite: 10.0 university credits and permission of instructor.

ANTH 4020D is a double credit in Anthropology. ANTH 4010Y is a single credit because the same thesis is submitted to the other department/program in a joint-major. Students undertake a specific research project and write a thesis of 12,000 to 15,000 words on a well-defined topic. Arrangements begin with the chair of the department March 1 of the preceding academic year and departmental approval must be completed before March 31. Prerequisite: 9.0 university credits including ANTH 3100Y or 3991H (or 3990Y); courses directly relevant to the thesis topic; and a minimum 80% cumulative average in ANTH courses completed.

ANTH 4020D is a double credit in Anthropology. ANTH 4010Y is a single credit because the same thesis is submitted to the other department/program in a joint-major. Students undertake a specific research project and write a thesis of 12,000 to 15,000 words on a well-defined topic. Arrangements begin with the chair of the department March 1 of the preceding academic year and departmental approval must be completed before March 31. Prerequisite: 9.0 university credits including ANTH 3123H (3100Y) or 3991H; courses directly relevant to the thesis topic; and a minimum 80% cumulative average in ANTH courses completed.

The cultural identity of living peoples and the appreciation of the human past rely on the safeguarding of tangible heritage, yet physical remains of the past are under constant threat of destruction, disappearance, or distortion. What underlies these threats, and how effectively are legal and professional standards addressing them? Prerequisite: 8.0 university credits.

Cross-listed: AHCL-4145H

A critical review of the archaeology of the Great Lakes region of North America, from the earliest evidence of human presence to European colonization. Seminars address the long-term historical and evolutionary nature of landscapes and societies, focusing on environmental change and population history, technology, subsistence, settlement, trade and exchange, and socio-political organization. Prerequisite: ANTH 2121H and 2122H or permission of instructor

Cross-listed: CAST-4155H, INDG-4155H

Anthropological collecting and display have made museums an arena for shifting relationships between settler-colonial society and Indigenous peoples. Critically examining recent practice in museum anthropology, including forms of repatriation and the use of anthropological collections by Indigenous researchers, this course explores implications of changing praxis for anthropology as a discipline. Prerequisite: 10.0 university credits.

Cross-listed: INDG-4165H

Using anthropological theory and archaeologicallygenerated data sets, this course explores the characteristics of, and reasons for, the "collapse" of complex societies. The focus is on the last two phases of the "Adaptive Cycle": release and reorganization. Implications for the contemporary world are also discussed. Prerequisite: 10.0 university credits or permission of the instructor.

Cross-listed: ERSC-4180H, AHCL-4180H

Using archaeological and environmental theory, and diverse data sets, lectures and student research projects explore human impacts on ancient environments. The focus is on the first two phases of the "Adaptive Cycle": exploitation and conservation. Seminars concentrate on contemporary environmental issues. Prerequisite: 10.0 university credits or permission of instructor.

Cross-listed: AHCL-4185H, ERSC-4185H

Using archaeological and historical datasets, this course examines pre-industrial cities and urban communities across time and space. Lectures and seminars focus on the diverse ways that urban spaces can be structured, and the nature of early urban lived experiences. Prerequisite: ANTH 2122H.

A continuation of Culture and Mortality in which we explore in-depth selected topics relating to death; topics based on student interest. Prerequisite: ANTH 3260H or permission of instructor.

An anthropological introduction to the broad dynamics of urbanization, especially the emergence of the "modern" city, which shapes, and is shaped by, a variety of social phenomena. Special emphasis is placed on the use of ethnographic analysis to understand how processes of urban society manifest themselves in everyday life. Prerequisite: 4.0 university credits. Not open to students with credit for ANTH 3390H.

Considers the senses as culturally mediated, and culture as sensually mediated. Examines a diversity of historical and contemporary sensoria, and how these relate to social life, experience of the world, and claims to knowledge. Prerequisite: ANTH 2001H or 2002H or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for ANTH 3290H

Provides students with a critical understanding of the theoretical models and archaeological evidence for the origins and spread of agricultural societies. The course explores evolutionary, ecological and social theories and reviews genetic, linguistic, archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological and settlement data from Southwest and Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Prerequisite: 9.0 university credits including ANTH 2121H and 2122H, or permission of the instructor

Cross-listed: SAFS-4350H

Focuses on the study of disease in human skeletal remains. Emphasis is placed on the description and diagnosis of bone pathology, theoretical issues underlying the reconstruction of the health of past populations, and recent molecular and microscopic approaches to the study of disease in bone. Prerequisite: ANTH-BIOL-FRSC 3404H and ANTH-FRSC 3405H or permission of instructor.

Explores how and why past populations are reconstructed from skeletal samples, with emphasis on current theoretical and methodological issues in skeletal biology. Topics include methods of age estimation, growth and development, palaeodemography, palaeopathology, chemical analysis of bones and teeth, population studies, dental anthropology, and ancient DNA. Prerequisite: ANTHBIOL-FRSC 3404H and ANTH-FRSC 3405H or permission of the instructor. Not open to students with credit for ANTH 3430H.

Examines human dietary behaviour as a product of interactions among ecology, culture, and biology. It focuses on basic nutritional and ecological principles, diet from evolutionary, comparative, and historical perspectives, cultural factors influencing diet, food as medicine, and the impact of under-nutrition on human physiology and behaviour. Prerequisite: ANTH 2410H or permission of instructor

Cross-listed: BIOL-4440H, SAFS-4440H

Analyzes some of the critical global health issues and challenges that face humanity in the new century, and the manner in which global institutions are addressing those issues. Interdisciplinary in scope, the course draws on scholarship from global public health, political economy, biopolitics, and human rights. Prerequisite: 14.0 university credits including 1.0 IDST or ANTH or SOCI credit at the 2000 level or permission of instructor.

Cross-listed: IDST-4512H, SOCI-4512H

Survey of the ancient and modern Maya of Central America. Examines the culture of the contemporary Maya, one of the largest Indigenous groups of the Americas, as well as the archaeology of pre-Columbian Maya civilization. Prerequisite: ANTH 2121H and 2122H or permission of instructor. Not open to students with credit for ANTH 3710H.

Designed for students to pursue special interests largely through independent study. Signature of instructor and department required. Details to be arranged in advance consultation with faculty in Anthropology and proposals to be submitted to the chair of the department for approval and signature. Completed applications with the appropriate supporting documents will be forwarded to the Office of the Dean of Arts & Science for Approval prior to the add deadline for the requested term.

Designed for students to pursue special interests largely through independent study. Signature of instructor and department required. Details to be arranged in advance consultation with faculty in Anthropology and proposals to be submitted to the chair of the department for approval and signature. Completed applications with the appropriate supporting documents will be forwarded to the Office of the Dean of Arts & Science for Approval prior to the add deadline for the requested term.

Designed for Honours students to pursue special interests largely through independent study. Prerequisite: A minimum average of 80% in ANTH courses completed. Signature of instructor and department required. Details to be arranged in advance consultation with faculty in Anthropology and proposals to be submitted to the chair of the department for approval and signature. Completed applications with the appropriate supporting documents will be forwarded to the Office of the Dean of Arts & Science for approval prior to the add deadline for the requested term

An interdisciplinary introduction to the topic of women and gender in science. How is gender difference understood within scientific disciplines? Why are women under-represented in various science and technological fields? How are women, and feminist scholarship, changing science? Prerequisite: 8.0 university credits including 1.0 GESO or WMST credit at the 3000 level or permission of instructor.

Cross-listed: GESO-4932H