Undergraduate Courses:

Undergraduate Courses:

Anth 102            Title: Archaeology & Prehistory                     GenEd: SBG
Instructor: Carolyn White                 email: clwhite@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: MW & disc. 2:30PM                        Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture & Discussion Students must register for both the lecture and discussion section.

The course introduces students with no background in anthropology to the theories and methods of archaeology. The course lectures focus on the major transformations of human society from its beginnings to the rise of states and sensitize students to the important roles material culture and archaeology in modern society. The weekly lab sections familarize students with archaeological methods and provide some hands-on exercises with archaeological data.

Anth 103            Title: Human Origins & Variations                 GenEd: BS
Instructor: Lynnette Sievert             email: leidy@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: MW 10:10AM             Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture & Discussion

The goal of this course is to achieve an understanding of human evolution and human variation. The course will be divided into 4 major areas: genetics, primate evolution, human evolution and bio-cultural interactions. It is imperative that you read the assigned materials and go to lab.

Anth HO2            Title: Honors Colloquium Anth 103                      GenEd:
Instructor: Lynnette Sievert             email: leidy@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: F 10:10AM                     Credits: 1
Course Description: Honors

Anth 103(b)           Title: Human Origins & Variations                 GenEd: BS
Instructor: Alexis Dolphin                email: aedolphi@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: TuTh 11:15AM                        Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture (RAP students only)

This course is designed to give students a comprehensive understanding of human evolution and contemporary human variability.

Anth 104            Title: Culture Society & People                      GenEd: SBG
Instructor: Julie Hemment             email: jhemment@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: MW 2:30PM               Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture & Discussion

Cultural anthropology is concerned with the description and analysis of people's lifeways in different societies and environments: how people make a living from their environment, how families are organized, how they settle conflicts and make political decisions. How they view and maintain relations between women and men, what they believe about the supernatural and how they carry out religious rituals and how they cope with other groups of human beings who are culturally different from themselves. Our most important objective in this course is to enable you to understand the diversity of human life-ways including our own and to better understand the broad range of "normal" human behavior and ideas found around the world.

Anth HO1            Title: Honors Colloquium for Anth 104                      GenEd:
Instructor: Julie Hemment             email: jhemment@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: W 10:10AM                     Credits: 1
Course Description: Honors Colloquium

Anth 104F (1)            Title: Culture, Society & People             GenEd: SBG
Instructor: Tilman Lanz                  email: tlanz@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: MWF 12:20PM                      Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture, (RAP students only)

Anth 104F (2)            Title: Culture, Society & People             GenEd: SBG
Instructor: TBA                 email:
Day/Time: TuTh 1:00AM             Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture, (RAP students only)

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the realms of human cultural diversity and historical development. Cultural anthropology is concerned with the study of patterns of thought, meanings and social relations which include marriage customs, kinship organization, political systems and relations of power, economic relations and productive systems, religion, art, music, etc. These cultural component may be analuzed within a given society or across different cultural groups. The most important objectives of this course lie in presenting to the student the most predominant themes, concepts and debates concerning the discipline of cultural anthropology. A critical exposition of some of these key issues will equip the students with certain analytical skills, which improve his or her understanding of the social world.

Anth 104W            Title: Culture, Society & People             GenEd: SBG
Instructor: TBA                 email:
Day/Time: TuTh 11:15AM                        Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture, (RAP students only)

Anth 106            Title: Culture through Film                  GenEd: SBG
Instructor: Krista Harper               email: kharper@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: Tue 6:30PM                 Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture & Discussion and films.

Exploration of different cultures and theories of cultural anthropology through the medium of film. Ethnographic, documentary, and feature films are used to focus on a wide array of cultures and to examine such topics as race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, political processes, colonialism and cultural change. Cinema as a medium of communication and cross-cultural understanding.

Anth 106O            Title: Culture through Film                  GenEd: SBG
Instructor: Enoch Page                  email: hepage@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: W 6:30PM                        Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture, (RAP students only)

Films, lectures, discussion. Exploration of different societies and cultures, and the theories of cultural anthropology, through films. Ethnographic, documentary, and feature films are used to focus on a wide array of cultures and to examine such topics as ecological adaptations, sex roles, ethnicity, religion, politics and social change. Cinema as a medium of communication and cross-cultural understanding.

Anth 150            Title: Ancient Civilizations                  GenEd: HSG
Instructor: Michael Sugerman                     email: sugerman@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: MW 12:20PM             Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture & Discussion

The archaeology of the emergence of civilization in Mesopatamia, Egypt, Nubia, the Indus Valley, China and Mesoamerica. Topics include the origins of agriculture and sedentary life, the first cities, and theories on the rise and fall of civilizations.

Anth 208            Title: Human Ecology                        GenEd: SBG
Instructor: Brooke Thomas                        email: rbthomas@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: TuTh 2:30 PM             Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture

Exploration of the causes and consequences of environmental problems on human groups. Environmental philosophies and movements. Emphasis on human-environmental interactions and how human groups adapt bioculturally to environmental constraints. Examples from mountains, grassland, deserts, and tropical forests.

Anth 270            Title: North American Indians             GenEd: SBG
Instructor: Jean Forward               email: jforward@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: TuTh 9:30 AM             Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture

Survey of the cultures and indigenous peoples of America north of Mexico, their variations and adaptation, their relationships to each other, and the changes taking place in their lifeways.

Anth 297A            Title: Intercultural Living               GenEd:
Instructor: Carol LeBold               email: cjl@ipo.umass.edu
Day/Time: TBA 0:00 AM             Credits: 1
Course Description: Lecture

Anth 297B            Title: ST: Gender & Sexuality                       GenEd:
Instructor: Jackie Urla                   email: jurla@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: TuTh 11:15 AM                  Credits: 3
Course Description: Seminar

This course will familiarize students with ethnographic and cross cultural approaches to the study of gender and sexuality. No prerequisites required. Take home essays and active participation in class discussions required.

Anth 306     Cancelled Course 11/26/03       Title: Visual Anthropology               GenEd:
Instructor: Jackie Urla                   email: jurla@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: TuTh 2:30 PM             Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture and Lab

This course examines the politics and poetics of visual representation in the field of anthropology, focusing primarily, but not exclusively on the moving image. In this class, we will be critically examining how information about cultural diversity is conveyed through visual images and the historical contexts and theoretical frameworks that have shaped the various ways in which human cultures have been represented visually. Students will be asked to examine a variety of documentary, observational, and experimental styles in both ethnographic film and "indigenous media", and to consider how relations of power and authority are embodied in both form and content. Students in this class can simultaneously enroll in a 2 credit practicum to learn ethnographic video production. Cancelled Course 11/26/03

Anth 312            Title: Medical Anthropology               GenEd:
Instructor: Lynnette Sievert             email: leidy@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: MWF 1:25PM             Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture

Through readings, lectures, student presentations, and class discussion, we will explore: general concepts in medical anthropology such as health, illness, disease, healing and curing; interrelationships between biology and culture in relation to health across the lifespan; cross-cultural modes of explaining and treating physical, mental and spiritual disorders; and challenges facing our present health care delivery system.

Anth 360            Title: Language in Culture and Society             GenEd:
Instructor: David Samuels             email: Samuels@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: Tu 2:30 PM                       Credits: 3
Course Description: Pre-Req: Anth 104, 105 or 106. Fulfills the "Doing" requirement.

In this fieldwork-based course, we will give students practical experience in using ethnographic methods to understand how linguistic practices relate both to their cultural contexts and to other forms of symbolic communication and expression. We will do two kinds of reading during the semester. One set of readings will cover the practical, theoretical, and ethical scope of collecting and analyzing linguistic and other ethnographic data. Other readings will consist of ethnographic writing that highlights methodological issues. Students' ethnographic projects will channel the direction of the class, so students will be expected to be self-motivated.

Anth 364            Title: Problems in Anthropology I             GenEd:
Instructor: Andy Lass                    email: alass@mtholyoke.edu
Day/Time: TuTh 11:15AM                        Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture, Disc. Anthro Majors (Jr Year Writing Requirement)

Introduction to major issues in anthropological theory. Focus on key concepts in the discipline, important authors, and development of and debates over theoretical issues.

Anth 368 Cancelled Title: Old World Prehistory                     GenEd:
Instructor: Martin Wobst               email: wobst@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: MWF 1:25 PM                        Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture

Cancelled Course

Anth 370            Title: Contemporary Issues for Native American                      GenEd: U
Instructor: Jean Forward               email: jforward@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: TH 2:30 PM                       Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture

Study and applications of anthropological theory to contemporary problems of North American Indians including and analysis of their environmental, economic, political, social and religious variables involved in gaining a holistic perspective of contemporary indigenous problems.

Anth 372   Cancelled Course          Title: Human Variation                      GenEd:
Instructor: Mary Ryan                   email: ryan@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: TuTh 2:30 PM             Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture. Pre-req: Anth 103, intro to Biology or instructor permission.

Review of contemporary human variation in demography, morphology, physiology and genetics. Emphasis on explaining, not just categorizing, the differences. Inter and intra populations variation around the globe.

Anth 397A            Title: ST: The Anthropology of Play             GenEd:
Instructor: Enoch Page                  email: hepage@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: Tu 2:30 PM                       Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture
This is a course designed to examine the primate behavior of play that takes on new dimensions as a product of human culture. We will consider how and why primates play and will explore the cultural design of human play to see what additional meanings play acquires as one form of cultural production. We will consider the gender, race and class parameters of play as we focus on the history of play rather than on sport. The course will be run as a three hour play-lab including lectures about cultural parameters of play, in-class experimentation with play, and student reports on play research. The course may enroll undergraduates and graduates for advanced credit. Some background in anthropology is helpful, but not required.

Anth 397B            Title: ST: Andean-Amazonian Spirituality and Biodiversity
Instructor: Brooke Thomas                        email: rbthomas@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: Tu 7:30 PM                       Credits: 4
Course Description: Course commences January in Peru studying Andean-Amazonian ecology, bio-cultural diversity and agriculture of the native Quechua-Lamistas. Topics include shamanism, traditional health practices and community building. Perspectives and research projects developed in Peru will be elaborated on and researched during the Spring semester.

Anth 397C            Title: ST:Cultural Acoustics                     GenEd:
Instructor: David Samuels             email: Samuels@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: TuTh 1:00 PM             Credits: 3
Course Description: Seminar

We like to say "seeing is believing, " but it's a lot harder to close your ears than it is to close your eyes. In this class we will explore the social and cultural life of sound. One focus of the course will be in the area of the production of sound, including the sonic properties of language and the cultural practices of musical performance. Another focus will be the reception of sound. How do ears work? How does the medium through which sound travels influence its sonic properties? Part of this exploration will take us through a cultural history of sound, such as the politics of noise ordinances, the development of acoustical materials for architecture, and the history of recording technology. We will also think about the cultural life of sound in natural and constructed environments.

Anth 397D            Title: ST: Action Anthropology               GenEd:
Instructor: Julie Hemment             email: jhemment@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: TuTh 1:00 PM             Credits: 3
Course Description: Seminar. “Doing” Course
This undergraduate seminar explores the possibilities for social activism through anthropology and examines the ways anthropology has regarded projects for social change. What can anthropology bring to activism? What does activist anthropology look like? Students will engage a variety of different forms of action-oriented approaches: feminist anthropology, participatory action research, community service learning. They will also explore anthropological critiques of social change interventions (e.g. development, democratization). This is a “doing” course; students will consider these themes whilst engaging in their own community-based work. Each student is required to engage in a minimum of 30 hours community service over the course of the semester and to reflect on this work in a final paper.

Anth 397E            Title: ST: Visual Anthropology Editing             GenEd:
Instructor: Jackie Urla                   email: jurla@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: Th 4:00 PM                       Credits: 1
Course Description: Seminar Film Editing

Anth 397H            Title: ST: Community Grassroot Development                GenEd:
Instructor: Art Keene             email: keene@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: Th 2:30 AM                      Credits: 4
Course Description: Lecture. "Doing" course, Instructor Permission

This course explores how grassroots organizations (that is, are constituted of, by and for local people using local knowledge and assets) work to effect social change that enhances the common good. In particular, we will be focusing on grassroots solutions to rural poverty and political disenfranchisement. The geographic focus of our investigations will be primarily but not exclusively the rural south, a region that has known profound poverty and violent political repression but which has also engendered inspiring grassroots responses to these challenges. This class differs from most others on campus in that it is a community service learning course. We will study grassroots development in the classroom and then spend our spring break working side by side with members of a grassroots organization in a week of direct service.

Anth 397M            Title: ST: Leadership & Activism                   GenEd:
Instructor: Art Keene             email: keene@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: Su 6:00 PM                       Credits: 4
Course Description: Lec. "Doing course" Instructor permission

Anth 397S            Title: ST: Community Service Learning                       GenEd:
Instructor: Art Keene             email: keene@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: TBA 0:00 AM             Credits: 1-2
Course Description: Lecture Permission of Instructor Required.

Anth 421            Title: Prehistoric Cultural Ecology                        GenEd:
Instructor: Martin Wobst               email: wobst@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: TuTh 9:30 AM             Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture
The course is designed to give you confidence in your ability to find, define and solve problems in the arena where “culture”, “time” and “nature” overlap. The course will attempt to work from the top down by introducing open questions about topics of interest to anthropologists, and by defining ways in which one could tackle those questions in reasonable ways in historic or prehistoric contexts. Above all, the course tried to convey that lots of problems in anthropology are unsolved yet, that problem solving in culture, (pre)history and ecology is fun, rather than a drag, and that the world is knowable to some degree.

Anth 481            Title: Research Methods                       GenEd: R2
Instructor: Richard Wikander                     email: wikander@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: MW 9:05 AM             Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture. Anthro majors Jr's & Sr's only.

Elementary statistics with a very strong epistemological emphasis. The concept of epistemic justification based on probabilistic statements. Presentationalism vs. representationalism in science, and my on-going refutation of the utterly ridiculous and incomprehensible claims that Modern science is "positivistic". Builds skill in basic manipulation of statistica; expressions, with emphasis on what these expression are actually saying about the real world they are describing. No computer software, since I feel this gets in the way of understanding the language of the math involved. Calculator, writing instruments and lots of written assignments.

Anth 499C           Title: Community Grassroots Development            GenEd:
Instructor: Art Keene            email: Keene @anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: Th 2:30-5:30 PM          Credits: 3
Course Description: Course x-listed or same as Anth 397H (This 499C section is for honors students only.)

Anth 499F            Title:Field Methods in Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology            GenEd:
Instructor: Ventura Perez             email: bioarchman@aol.com
Day/Time: M 4:30-6:00 PM            Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture/Lab, Students must have taken Anth 499E
This course is a continuation of 499E and will examine the complex social and cultural interactions that can lead to violence while allowing students to continue their research projects in forensic anthropology and bioarchaeology. Students will explore how violence targets the psyche, body, and sociocultural environment of the perpetrators, victims, and societies in which it occurs. How people come to terms with such tragic events and how cultures are affected by them wil be examined. In addition, a multidisciplinary approach including archaeology, bioarchaeology, osteology and forensic science, willbe used to examine methods, theory and data on violence and trauma on both prehistoric and modern human populations. Students will use these readings to help contextuallize their research projects by coming to terms with the complexity of issues that create and maintain violence in both the present and the past. This class is designed to give students the opportunity to talk through the ideas presented in both the readings and their individual research projects. The structure of the course will provide students with opportunities to ask questions and exchange ideas with both their peers and me in a casual environment. In addition, students will meet with me indivudually to discuss the research papers.

Graduate Courses:

Anth 529            Title: Archaeology of Northeastern North America             GenEd:
Instructor: Elizabeth Chilton             email: echilton@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: TuTh 1:00 PM             Credits: 3
Course Description: Pre-req: Anth 102 or permission of Instructor, Meets "Doing" requirement.

In this course we first trace the history of Native Americans in the region from 12,000 years ago to the present; much of this information comes from the archaeological record. We then put this knowledge into practice by working with community partners (e.g., local schools, museums, and historical societies). The first half of the course will include a series of readings and discussions, as well as hands-on lab sessions utilizing artifacts from the Anthropology Department's collections. The second half of the course will focus on student projects with community partners, and the integration of archaeological theory and practice.

Anth 578            Title: Theory & Method in Archaeology                 GenEd:
Instructor: Martin Wobst               email: wobst@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: W 6:30 PM                       Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture. Instructor Permission

A review of anthropological theory as applies to the sub-discipline of anthropological archaeology. The course proceeds to topically, assessing what questions are being asked, what theories and methods are available to answer them, and how to improve our understanding of the human condition in the future (with the help of the material products and material precedents of human behavior). Consent of instructor required to register.

Anth 597A            Title: Field School Prep.                GenEd:
Instructor: Elizabeth Chilton             email: echilton@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: W 9:05 AM                      Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture. Instructor permission required to add course. This course is designed for advanced graduate students in archaeology.

Anth 597B            Title: ST: Political Ecology                        GenEd:
Instructor: Brooke Thomas                        email: rbthomas@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: W 12:20 PM                     Credits: 3
Course Description: Seminar
The seminar will develop transdisciplinary perspectives on how environments, and access to resources, are constructed by power relations. And how the multiple discourses that attempt to construct Nature, Sustainable Development, Space/Place, and Environmental/Social Justice compete with one another for control of this process.

Anth 641            Title: Theory & Method in Social Anthropology               GenEd:
Instructor: Jackie Urla                   email: jurla@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: F 12:20 PM                     Credits: 3
Course Description: Lecture.

This course is intended for beginning graduate students. The aim is to familiarize students with some foundational concepts and theoretical approaches in socio cultural theory. Grading based on close readings and the analysis of texts and critical analytical essays.

Anth 680            Title: Seminar in European Anthropology II Field Study
Instructor: Betsy Krause                email: ekrause@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: TBA 12:00:00 AM                  Credits: 6
Course Description: Field Study in Europe

Anth 697A            Title: ST: The Anthropology of Information               GenEd:
Instructor: Enoch Page                  email: hepage@anthro.umass.edu
Day/Time: Th 2:30 PM                       Credits: 3
Course Description: Seminar.
This seminar is designed to explore the nature of information. Following Emile Durkheim, Gregory Bateson, Maurice Leenhardt, Frederick Barth, Michele Rolph-Trouillot and others, we will theorize how human perception shapes the naturally available information and reduces it into the convenient meaningful conceptual forms we recognize as the categories. Working first from an embodied personal perspective and later from an embodied population perspective, we will attempt to theorize what euphemistically could be described as the socio-cultural behavior arising from “the hardening of the categories.” The seminar is exploratory and the information, though unusual, is, as we shall see, quite relevant to the anthropological discourse of any subfield. The course is interdisciplinary. Some readings will be familiar disciplinary fare, but others will feel strangely distant from anthropology, and thus, their integration will require intense study and analysis. The seminar works best when students deeply study, come prepared to respond to lectures, and contribute to the discussion of concepts under scrutiny. Our aim is to impact your own work sooner than later. For those upon whom this work has a rapid impact, their final papers will tackle some problem presented in the seminar, but others may need to let the course steep. They thus are free to work on any work that advances their program, as long as they do not miss class, do all the readings and demonstrate a complete engagement with the inquiry in which we will engage.