Course Descriptions

This course will acquaint students with anthropological and ethnographic approaches to Indigenous research in Canada. The course is focused on understanding first and foremost the historical and contemporary diversity and complexity of Indigenous societies and issues in Canada; secondly on understanding anthropological questions and the distinctive contributions and perspectives that anthropologists provide or have historically provided through Indigenous research in Canada.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): 30 credit units of university courses.

This course is designed to provide an introduction to the anthropological grounding of cultural competency and its application to community, health, and violence intervention programming. The course uses a “case-study” approach so that the application of academic cultural competency models can be critically assessed.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): ANTH 111.3 or permission of the instructor.

A comprehensive survey of the ethnography, ethnohistory, and contemporary cultural issues facing the peoples of the North American plains. The composition and development of the plains culture complex and the impact of culture change will be considered centrally in this course.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): ANTH 111.3, INDG 107.3, ANTH 112.3, or ARCH 112.3; or permission of instructor.

Examination of the utility of cultural anthropology's concepts, theory, methodology and insights in creatively influencing the conduct of domestic and international business. Cross-cultural business etiquette, understanding of marketing and consumer behaviour, and importance of intercultural negotiation in solving business problems in multicultural/transnational organizational settings are also discussed.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): ANTH 111.3 or completion of 30 credit units at the university level including a 100-level social science course.

Broadly considers society and culture in Eastern and Central Europe, how the region today is related to both the socialist and pre-socialist pasts, and how ethnography as a key research tool used by anthropologists helps to account for sociocultural changes the region is undergoing since the late 1980's.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): ANTH 111.3 or completion of 30 credit units at the university level, including an introductory social science course.
Note: Students with credit for ANTH 298 Special Topics: Cultures of Central and Eastern Europe may not take this course for credit.

Examines some of the major dimensions of non-material culture including religion, magic, and constructs of space and time. It also examines processes of enculturation and culture change.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): ANTH 111.3 or permission of instructor.

This course is an introduction to contemporary medical anthropology. It surveys anthropological approaches to the relationship between socio-cultural factors and illness, health, healing practices, the body, and mind. The ways in which social, cultural and political forces impact how various forms of human health and illness are understood, experienced, and dealt with will be examined.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): ANTH 111.3 or 30 credit units of university courses including an introductory social sciences course.

Introduction and assessment of various anthropological approaches to the study of ethnicity and ethnic groups in a cross-cultural comparative framework.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): ANTH 111.3 or completion of 30 credit units at the university level including a 100-level social science course.

This course examines the cultural construction of landscapes, as well as of built and social environments, through a series of topical readings focusing on historical, archaeological, literary, and ethnographic understandings.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): ANTH 111.3 or permission of instructor.
Note: Not open to students with credit in ANTH 498.3(02): Anthropological Perspectives on Space and Place (2009).

Examines the archaeological reconstruction of cultural development in the regions of ancient Israel and Syria from the Late Bronze Age to the Hellenistic Period, focusing on methodological issues, major sites, and the defining characteristics of the cultures themselves.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): ANTH 112.3 OR 116.3
Note: Students with credit for CLAS 237.3 or CLAS 244.3 or ARCH 244.3 may not take this course for credit.

Taking a political ecology approach drawn from anthropology, cross-cultural examples, and other disciplines, the course examines the impact of major 20th. and 21st. Century economic and technological developments upon peoples and environments. The focus is upon Indigenous nations, farming, peasant, and other local communities in cross-cultural and global perspective. A core emphasis is on environmental crises (chronic and acute), often associated with asymmetrical power relations, and socio-cultural responses to them, especially in the form of movements of resistance, protest, and reform. Political ecology blends the insights of a unified political economic approach in the social sciences with cultural and human ecologies as well as a mixture of biological and social ecological sciences. The course also explores sustainable futures through this paradigm.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): ANTH 111.3 or ARCH 112.3 or successful completion of 30 credit units of university study.
Note: Students who have taken ANTH 298 (Special Topics): Political Ecology, Anthropology and Contemporary Environmental Issues may not take this course for credit.

A study of the theory, methods and techniques used by archaeologists in survey, excavation, analysis and interpretation. Emphasizes methods and techniques. Laboratory instruction is given in the handling of archaeological material and data.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours and 1 Practicum/Lab hours
Prerequisite(s): ANTH 112.3 or 116.3.
Note: Students with credit for ARCH 250 may not receive credit for this course. Note that there will be costs in addition to tuition fees.

How do archaeologists reconstruct the lives of past peoples from the material remains they left behind? This course introduces the student to the methods, techniques and theoretical models used by archaeologists as they answer questions about our human past and the emergence of modern societies.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): ANTH 112.3 or 116.3.
Note: Students with credit for ARCH 251 may not receive credit for this course.

Introduces students to the excavation and laboratory methods used in Near Eastern archaeology. Beginning with research design, the course leads students through the techniques of excavation in the field to the analysis of artifacts and data in the lab.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours and 1 Practicum/Lab hours
Prerequisite(s): 12 credit units in Archaeology or 30 credit units at the university.
Note: Students with credit for ARCH 252 may not receive credit for this course.

A study of the archaeological evidence for the reconstruction of ancient Egyptian culture from the Neolithic through to the Roman periods, focusing on the particular characteristics of archaeology in Egypt, major cultural periods, and significant sites.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): ANTH 112.3, ANTH 116.3, ARCH 112.3, or ARCH 116.3
Note: Students with credit for ARCH 257 may not receive credit for this course.

A study of the archaeological evidence for the development of the cultures of ancient Mesopotamia from the Neolithic through to the Persian periods, focusing on the particular characteristics of Mesopotamian archaeology, major cultural periods, significant sites, and the relation of urban centres to the surrounding regions.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): ANTH 112.3 or 116.3
Note: Students with credit for ARCH 258 may not receive credit for this course.

This course is designed as an introduction to the archaeology of North America. It presents a broad survey of culture areas, with a focus on adaptation, culture change, economy, and technology. It will use the comparative approach to study the past lives of hunter-gatherer, horticulturalist, and agricultural cultures of North America. It covers from Time Immemorial and the First Peopling into the Colonial Period. It contextualizes the role archaeologists have in re-interpreting the past and how Reconciliation affects our work.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours
Prerequisite(s): ANTH 112.3, ANTH 116.3, ARCH 112.3, or ARCH 116.3
Note(s): Students with credit for ARCH 259 or 298.3 Archaeology of North America may not take this course for credit.

An introductory overview of human biology including the background for evolutionary biology, and the evolution, structure, and function of certain primate patterns.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours and 3 Practicum/Lab hours
Prerequisite(s): 24 credit units of university courses including ANTH 112.3/ARCH 112.3 or both of BIOL 120.3 and BIOL 121.3.
Note: BIOL 120 and 121 are strongly recommended. Students with credit for ARCH 270 may not receive credit for this course. There will be costs in addition to tuition fees.

Offered occasionally by visiting faculty and in other special situations to cover, in depth, topics that are not thoroughly covered in regularly offered courses.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

Offered occasionally by visiting faculty and in other special situations. Students interested in these courses should contact the department for more information.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours