Anthropology (ANT)
Study of human evolution. Processes of evolution, human variation and race, behavior and morphology of nonhuman primates, and the fossil record. Emphasis on the study of human biosocial adaptation, past and present, and on humans as culture-bearing primates.
GEP Social Sciences
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
Comparative study of contemporary human culture, social institutions and processes that influence behavior. The range of human cultural variation shown throughout the world, including the student's own cultural system.
GEP Global Knowledge, GEP Social Sciences
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
World-wide survey of origins of human society, technology and culture in Old Stone Age, and origins of agriculture, cities, and civilizations of the Bronze and Iron Age in Europe, Asia, Africa, and pre-Columbian Middle and South America.
GEP Global Knowledge, GEP Social Sciences
Typically offered in Fall and Spring
Focus among the aspects of human language and between aspects of language and culture. Topics such as: descriptive and comparative linguistics, structuralism, language and thought, sociolinguistics, bilingualism, culture change and linguistic changes.
GEP U.S. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, GEP Social Sciences, GEP U.S. Diversity
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
Processes of social and cultural change with a focus on role of technological innovation. Cross-cultural emphasis. Workplace changes and societal risks in U.S. and non-U.S. societies associated with technological innovations. Special attention to the role of scientists and engineers in socio-cultural change. Topical case studies apply course concepts and principles. Core sociological and anthropological concepts, methods, theories.
GEP Global Knowledge, GEP Interdisciplinary Perspectives, GEP Social Sciences
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
Offered as needed to present 200-level subject materials not normally available in regular course offerings or for new courses on a trial basis.
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
Native North American peoples and cultures including Eskimos and Aleuts. Theories of origin and selected prehistoric cultural manifestations. People and cultures at the time of European contact and post-contact cultural change. Contemporary problems and prospects.
GEP Social Sciences, GEP U.S. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, GEP U.S. Diversity
Typically offered in Fall and Summer
This course introduces the peoples and cultures of Mesoamerica from prehistoric times to the Colonial period. Themes include the peopling of the New World, the development of agriculture and social inequity, and the rise of states and empires. Covers the cultures of the Olmec, Maya, Zapotec, and Aztec as well as the ongoing importance of these cultures for the people of Mexico and Central America. Introduces primary archaeological and ethnohistoric sources and the anthropological approach to understanding people and cultures through their material remains.
GEP Social Sciences, GEP Global Knowledge
Typically offered in Fall only
This course is offered alternate even years
The societies, cultures, politics, economics and ecology of the Andean countries of South America (Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia). Special attention is paid to the development of pre-Columbian Andean societies.
GEP Global Knowledge, GEP Social Sciences
Typically offered in Spring only
Course offers an introduction to the anthropological study of Africa. Focus is on African people and cultures, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, including past and present social patterns of indigenous African populations from a cross-cultural perspective.
GEP Global Knowledge, GEP Social Sciences
Typically offered in Fall only
An introduction to the anthropology of Middle Eastern societies. Themes include religion and secularism, gender and sexuality, national identity and the state, memory and commemoration, violence and conflict, youth culture, and popular uprisings.
GEP Global Knowledge, GEP Social Sciences
Typically offered in Spring only
Southeast Asian peoples and cultures; past and present social patterns of selected mainland and insular Southeast Asian peoples; culture change; relations between minorities and dominant ethnic groups; development of nationalism.
Prerequisite: ANT 252
Typically offered in Fall only
Introduction to basic aspects of cultural practices in Japanese society, including education, work life, family relationships, everyday religious practices, aesthetic traditions, national identity and gender. Students will develop an understanding of the interrelationships between language and culture. The course is repeatable with different content topics.
Typically offered in Spring only
This course is offered alternate odd years
The Pacific Ocean contains thousands of inhabited islands. This course examines the millions of people and thousands of societies that live in the Pacific and its three subregional areas Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Course topics include the Pacific environment, peopling of the Pacific, regional cultural variation, social organization, Exchange systems, politics, conflict, modernization, globalization and global warming in the Pacific region.
Prerequisite: ANT 252
Typically offered in Spring only
Provides a broad overview of forensic anthropology, an applied field of biological anthropology. Students will apply the science of biological anthropology to the legal process and humanitarian arena. Students will identify skeletal remains to determine age, sex, ancestry, stature, and unique features of a decedent. Course will address general identification techniques, but proficiency is not expected.
GEP Social Sciences
Typically offered in Fall and Spring
Survey of basic principles of population genetics with emphasis on mechanisms that shape human biological variation. Geographic variation. Analysis of laws of heredity exhibited in modern human populations via microevolution and adaptation. Historical development of concepts with specific application to physical and forensic anthropology. Discussion of most current research.
Prerequisite: ANT 251
GEP Global Knowledge
Typically offered in Fall only
This course is offered alternate odd years
Survey of diseases that affect human beings and human societies past and present. Analysis of how diseases affect societies with different economies (gathering/hunting, pastoral, agricultural, industrial) and of different social complexity. Impactof diseases on human evolution.
Overview of the objectives, field strategies, basics of laboratory analysis, and interpretative approaches to the archaeological record. Analysis and classification of lithics, shell, bone, ceramics, metal, soils, and perishable materials.
Prerequisite: ANT 253 or Instructor Permission
Typically offered in Summer only
Offered as needed to present 300-level subject materials not normally available in regular course offerings or for new courses on a trial basis.
Prerequisite: 3 credits of 200-level Anthropology
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
A detailed introduction to anthropological theory, interpretive styles and research techniques of major nineteenth and twentieth century anthropologists working within the analytic frameworks of their times, positions espoused by anthropologists in contemporary debates concerning the discipline's future. Students cannot receive credit for both ANT 411 and ANT 511.
Typically offered in Spring only
History, aims, methods and ethics of applied anthropology. Anthropological practice in government, industry, community development, education, and medicine. Analysis of consequences of development programs for culture change. Credit cannot be given for both 412 and 512.
Typically offered in Spring only
A systematic overview of cultural anthropological research methods including designing research projects, research techniques, field work methods, and cross-cultural comparison. Reviews relevant ethical questions and anthropologists' reports of their own field work.
Prerequisite: ANT 252 and one of the following: ANT 310,325,330, 345, 346, 351, or 354
Typically offered in Fall only
Ethnographic research methods as part of a summer field school abroad. Topics: research design, participant observation, field note writing, interviewing, sampling, coding, computers in ethnographic research, analysis and ethics.
Prerequisite: Six hours of cultural anthropology
Typically offered in Summer only
Survey of all the bones of the human skeleton from an anthropological perspective, including their names, important features useful in recognizing fragmentary specimens from an archaeological context, and techniques for determining the side of the body they come from. Skeletal development and its relationship to skeletal abnormalities. Issues relating to the study of archaeological skeletons.
Prerequisite: ANT 251 and any ANT 300 Level
Typically offered in Fall only
Survey of approaches used by bioarchaeologists to understand past lifeways through the study of excavated human remains, and the theories that inform those approaches. Analysis and critique of the ways in which bioarchaeologists use skeletal and mortuary data to reconstruct health and disease patterns, mortality rates, diet, degree of interpersonal violence, and social structure among humans from the distant past.
Prerequisite: ANT 421
Typically offered in Spring only
An introduction to the bioarchaeology of the local region, and an overview of the objectives, field strategies, ad laboratory methods used by bioarchaeologists to prepare and study human remains from archaeological cemeteries. Includes laboratory work on field osteology and processing of skeletal remains. Provides an understanding of how bioarchaeologists proceed from excavation of osteological remains to preparation and analysis. Course is offered as part of an NCSU Study Abroad Program. All costs associated with the course, except for textbooks, are paid via the Study Abroad Program fee.
Prerequisite: ANT 421
Typically offered in Summer only
This course is offered alternate odd years
Survey of diseases that manifest on the human skeleton. Analysis and identification of these diseases from a clinical perspective through all life stages from radiographic analysis, macroscopic analysis, and photographic analysis.
Prerequisite: ANT 251
Typically offered in Spring only
This course is offered alternate even years
Anthropological approach to tourism studies with emphasis on cross-cultural aspects of international tourism. Attention to impact of mass tourism as compared to alternative tourism; environmental and economic impact of tourism; impact of international tourists and tourism on local communities. Principal theories of leisure in relation to tourism. Theories of culture change in relation to travel and tourism. Credit not given for both ANT 431 and ANT 531.
Prerequisite: Three hours of cultural anthropology
Typically offered in Fall and Summer
Introduction to how cultures and societies view, utilize, interpret, manage and conserve environmental and cultural heritage resources; includes examination of theory and concepts of place, identity, sacred heritage, ecotourism, wildlife management as well as the cultural politics and practices of environmentalist and heritage management. Some limited travel to NC heritage sites required at student expense.
Prerequisite: ANT 252
Typically offered in Spring only
This course is offered alternate odd years
Comparison of women in a variety of societies: western and non-western; hunting and gathering to industrialized. Cross-cultural perspective on the similarity and diversity of women's statuses and roles. Effect of gender on social position
Prerequisite: ANT 252 and one of the following: ANT 310,325,330 or 346
Typically offered in Spring only
This course is offered alternate years
Examines the myriad ways that culture serves to mediate the human-environmental equation. Focus is given to different belief systems, subsistence strategies, technological achievements, and policy formulations. Topics covered include cultural ecology, gender and the environment, land tenure, development, ethnoscience and cognitive ecology, subsistence and social organization, historical and political ecology, environmentalism, and environmental policy issues.
Prerequisite: One of the following: ANT 310,325,330 or 346
Anthropological study of cities. Examination of cross-cultural patterns of behavior in urban areas and adaptive strategies that urban dwellers employ. Introduction to major theoretical and methodological approaches relevant to an understanding of contemporary urbanization.
Prerequisite: ANT 252 and one of the following: ANT 310,325,330 or 346
Typically offered in Fall only
This course is offered alternate years
Examines notions of wealth and poverty in a variety of cultural settings, as well as ideas of whether and how people categorized as poor or rich might alter their status. These findings are applied to case studies of current international aid organizations that carry out poverty relief.
Restriction: Juniors and Seniors Only
GEP Global Knowledge, GEP Social Sciences
Typically offered in Fall only
Examination of various anthropological perspectives on the role of religion in social life, and discussion of theoretical and methodological issues pertaining to the study of ritual and belief.
Prerequisite: ANT 252 and one of the following: ANT 310,325,330 or 346
Typically offered in Spring only
This course is offered alternate even years
This collaborative, hands-on class examines what ultimately drives migration and how families, communities, and policy-makers respond to migration in ways that can keep the process going. Focusing on emigration from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, the course reviews the historical foundation for today's migration with attention to migration to North Carolina.
Prerequisite: Graduate Standing
GEP Global Knowledge, GEP Interdisciplinary Perspectives, GEP Social Sciences
Typically offered in Summer only
Archaeological investigation of human-environmental interactions and human impacts on ancient environments. Focuses on the causes of environmental change (climate, human activity) and the implications for understanding human nature, predicting future problems, and addressing current crises. Topics include reconstructing paleoclimate, the extinction of megafuana, anthropogenic landscapes, environmental degradation and the collapse of ancient states, sustainability and the Anthropocene.
Prerequisites:ANT 253 and one 300-level anthropology course
Typically offered in Fall and Spring
Survey of approaches used by archaeologists to understand the human past through the study of excavated animal remains, and the theories that inform those approaches. Analysis and critique of the ways in which archaeologists use animal remains to reconstruct past human economic systems, social identities, environments, hunting practices, domestication, and foodways. Includes analysis and identification of animal remains; zooarchaeological sampling, measurement, and quantification; and computer analysis of animal bone data to address archaeological questions.
Prerequisite: ANT 253
GEP Social Sciences
Typically offered in Spring only
Covers the theories that inform archaeological research in the effort to locate and interpret material evidence about past human activities. Topics include the history of archaeology, theories of archaeological practice and interpretation, ethics, and working with stakeholders. Relies on case studies and major syntheses and critiques of current theoretical debates. Cases focus on the origins of social complexity, human-environmental interactions, and critical perspectives on inequality, race, class, gender, and ethnicity. Students may not receive credit for both ANT 483 and ANT 583.
Typically offered in Fall only
Detailed investigation of a topic in anthropology. Topic and mode of study determined by faculty member(s).
Supervised observation and experience in work settings appropriate to anthropological perspectives. Study of the relationships between internship setting and relevant anthropological theory, methods and research. Weekly seminars, individual conferences and an integrative report. Students are responsible for arranging their own transportation to internship sites. Individualized/Independent Study and Research courses require a Course Agreement for Students Enrolled in Non-Standard Courses be completed by the student and faculty member prior to registration by the department.
Typically offered in Fall and Spring
Independent study of a topic in anthropology. Topic and mode of study determined by faculty member(s) and student(s). Individualized/Independent Study and Research courses require a Course Agreement for Students Enrolled in Non-Standard Courses be completed by the student and faculty member prior to registration by the department.
Prerequisite: Six hours of ANT
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
Introduction to anthropological research process; introduction to anthropology faculty; research proposal design; career planning; professional development; campus resources.
R: Anthropology Graduate students
Typically offered in Fall only
A detailed introduction to anthropological theory, interpretive styles and research techniques of major nineteenth and twentieth century anthropologists working within the analytic frameworks of their times, positions espoused by anthropologists in contemporary debates concerning the discipline's future. Students cannot receive credit for both ANT 411 and ANT 511.
Typically offered in Spring only
History, aims, methods and ethics of applied anthropology. Anthropological practice in government, industry, community development, education, and medicine. Analysis of consequences of development programs for culture change. Credit cannot be given for both 412 and 512.
Typically offered in Spring only
A systematic overview of cultural anthropological research methods including designing research projects, research techniques, field work methods, and cross-cultural comparison. Reviews relevant ethical questions and anthropologists' reports of their own field work.
Prerequisite: ANT 252 and one of the following: ANT 310,325,330, 345, 346, 351, or 354
Typically offered in Fall only
Survey of all the bones of the human skeleton from an anthropological perspective, including their names, important features useful in recognizing fragmentary specimens from an archaeological context, and techniques for determining the side of the body they come from. Skeletal development and its relationship to skeletal abnormalities. Issues relating to the study of archaeological skeletons.
Prerequisite: ANT 251 and any ANT 300 Level
Typically offered in Fall only
Survey of approaches used by bioarchaeologists to understand past lifeways through the study of excavated human remains, and the theories that inform those approaches. Analysis and critique of the ways in which bioarchaeologists use skeletal and mortuary data to reconstruct health and disease patterns, mortality rates, diet, degree of interpersonal violence, and social structure among humans from the distant past.
Prerequisite: ANT 421
Typically offered in Spring only
Survey of diseases that manifest on the human skeleton. Analysis and identification of these diseases from a clinical perspective through all life stages from radiographic analysis, macroscopic analysis, and photographic analysis.
Prerequisite: ANT 251
Typically offered in Spring only
This course is offered alternate even years
Advanced methods in forensic anthropology-an applied field of biological anthropology. Application of the science of biological anthropology to the medicolegal process. Identification of skeletal remains to determine age, sex, ancestry, stature, andunique features of a decedent. Analysis of human skeletal remains. Identification techniques addressed and proficiency expected. Students must provide their own transportation to the laboratory site.
Prerequisite: Graduate Standing
Typically offered in Spring only
This course is offered alternate even years
Anthropological approach to tourism studies with emphasis on cross-cultural aspects of international tourism. Attention to impact of mass tourism as compared to alternative tourism; environmental and economic impact of tourism; impact of international tourists and tourism on local communities. Principal theories of leisure in relation to tourism. Theories of culture change in relation to travel and tourism. Credit not given for both ANT 431 and ANT 531.
Prerequisite: Three hours of cultural anthropology
Typically offered in Fall and Summer
Introduction to how cultures and societies view, utilize, interpret, manage and conserve environmental and cultural heritage resources; includes examination of theory and concepts of place, identity, sacred heritage, ecotourism, wildlife management as well as the cultural politics and practices of environmentalist and heritage management. Some limited travel to NC heritage sites required at student expense.
Prerequisite: ANT 252
Typically offered in Spring only
This course is offered alternate odd years
Comparison of women in a variety of societies: western and non-western; hunting and gathering to industrialized. Cross-cultural perspective on the similarity and diversity of women's statuses and roles. Effect of gender on social position
Prerequisite: ANT 252 and one of the following: ANT 310,325,330 or 346
Typically offered in Spring only
This course is offered alternate years
Examines the myriad ways that culture serves to mediate the human-environmental equation. Focus is given to different belief systems, subsistence strategies, technological achievements, and policy formulations. Topics covered include cultural ecology, gender and the environment, land tenure, development, ethnoscience and cognitive ecology, subsistence and social organization, historical and political ecology, environmentalism, and environmental policy issues.
Prerequisite: One of the following: ANT 310,325,330 or 346
Anthropological study of cities. Examination of cross-cultural patterns of behavior in urban areas and adaptive strategies that urban dwellers employ. Introduction to major theoretical and methodological approaches relevant to an understanding of contemporary urbanization.
Prerequisite: ANT 252 and one of the following: ANT 310,325,330 or 346
Typically offered in Fall only
This course is offered alternate years
Examines notions of wealth and poverty in a variety of cultural settings, as well as ideas of whether and how people categorized as poor or rich might alter their status. These findings are applied to case studies of current international aid organizations that carry out poverty relief.
Restriction: Juniors and Seniors Only
GEP Global Knowledge, GEP Social Sciences
Typically offered in Fall only
Examination of various anthropological perspectives on the role of religion in social life, and discussion of theoretical and methodological issues pertaining to the study of ritual and belief.
Prerequisite: ANT 252 and one of the following: ANT 310,325,330 or 346
Typically offered in Spring only
This course is offered alternate even years
This collaborative, hands-on class examines what ultimately drives migration and how families, communities, and policy-makers respond to migration in ways that can keep the process going. Focusing on emigration from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, the course reviews the historical foundation for today's migration with attention to migration to North Carolina.
Prerequisite: Graduate Standing
GEP Global Knowledge, GEP Interdisciplinary Perspectives, GEP Social Sciences
Typically offered in Summer only
Archaeological investigation of human-environmental interactions and human impacts on ancient environments. Focuses on the causes of environmental change (climate, human activity) and the implications for understanding human nature, predicting future problems, and addressing current crises. Topics include reconstructing paleoclimate, the extinction of megafuana, anthropogenic landscapes, environmental degradation and the collapse of ancient states, sustainability and the Anthropocene.
Prerequisites:ANT 253 and one 300-level anthropology course
Typically offered in Fall and Spring
Survey of approaches used by archaeologists to understand the human past through the study of excavated animal remains, and the theories that inform those approaches. Analysis and critique of the ways in which archaeologists use animal remains to reconstruct past human economic systems, social identities, environments, hunting practices, domestication, and foodways. Includes analysis and identification of animal remains; zooarchaeological sampling, measurement, and quantification; and computer analysis of animal bone data to address archaeological questions.
Prerequisite: ANT 253
GEP Social Sciences
Typically offered in Spring only
Covers the theories that inform archaeological research in the effort to locate and interpret material evidence about past human activities. Topics include the history of archaeology, theories of archaeological practice and interpretation, ethics, and working with stakeholders. Relies on case studies and major syntheses and critiques of current theoretical debates. Cases focus on the origins of social complexity, human-environmental interactions, and critical perspectives on inequality, race, class, gender, and ethnicity. Students may not receive credit for both ANT 483 and ANT 583.
Typically offered in Fall only
Skeletal biology is the study of human skeletal remains; understanding past populations' demographics, health and disease, physical activity, diet, and biological relatedness to other groups, past and present. Must hold graduate standing.
Theoretical and practical overview of U.S. federal and state laws, institutions, and practices related to the inventory, evaluation, preservation, protection, and overall management of cultural resources; history and philosophical bases of Cultural Resource Management (CRM); professional ethics; indigenous and other stakeholder interests in CRM; and comparative national regulations outside the U.S. and the international heritage management and organizations. Graduate standing in history required.
Typically offered in Spring only
In depth exploration of specialized topics in Anthropology. Also used to test and develop new courses.
Prerequisite: Graduate Standing
Independent study of a topic in anthropology. Topic and mode of study determined by faculty member(s) and student(s).
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
Provision for in-depth investigation of some particular topic in anthropology. Reflection of current student needs and interests through variations in course content and mode of study. Determination of topics by faculty member(s) and student.
Independent study of a topic in anthropology. Topic and mode of study determined by faculty member(s) and student(s).
P: Graduate Standing
Typically offered in Summer only
Instruction in research, and research under the mentorship of a member of the Graduate Faculty. Restricted to Masters Students in Anthropology.
Prerequisite: Graduate Standing
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
Thesis research conducted under the supervision of student's thesis committee chair or other graduate faculty member. Restricted to Masters Students in Anthropology.
Prerequisite: Graduate Standing
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
Typically offered in Summer only
For students who have completed all credit hours, full-time enrollment, and other requirements for the masters degree, and are writing and defending their thesis. Restricted to Masters Students in Anthropology.
Prerequisite: Graduate Standing
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer
Provision for in-depth investigation of some particular topic in anthropology. Reflection of current student needs and interests through variations in course content and mode of study. Determination of topics by faculty member(s) and student.
Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer