Academic Calendar - 2024
Western University Academic Calendar. - 2024
Anthropology
An introduction to anthropology (the study of human beings, past and present) co-taught by specialists in biological anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and sociocultural anthropology. Students will explore anthropological approaches to and findings concerning: human evolution; variation and adaptation; diverse forms of social, political, and economic organization; culture; ritual; language; communication; identity; gender; health; social inequality; and globalization.
Antirequisite(s): Anthropology 1021A/B, Anthropology 1022A/B, Anthropology 1025F/G, Anthropology 1026F/G.
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hour.
Note: Students interested in earning essay course credit are encouraged to take Anthropology 1025F/G and Anthropology 1026F/G instead of Anthropology 1020.
Course Weight: 1.00
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An introductory course teaching basic concepts in the study of socio-cultural and linguistic practices worldwide. It underscores shared human experiences as well as our rich diversity. Topics include, changing socio-cultural and economic institutions, political and religious systems, and the role of language in the workings of power, indexicality and identity.
Antirequisite(s): Anthropology 1020 (formerly Anthropology 1020E), Anthropology 1025F/G.
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hour.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An introduction to aspects of Biological Anthropology and Archaeology which help us to understand the place of humankind in nature. Topics to be covered include heredity, human evolution and variability, archaeological method, the development of culture, the domestication of plants and animals, and the rise of civilization and the state.
Antirequisite(s): Anthropology 1020 (formerly Anthropology 1020E), Anthropology 1026F/G.
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hour.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An introductory course teaching basic concepts in the study of socio-cultural and linguistic practices worldwide. It underscores shared human experiences as well as our rich diversity. Topics include, changing socio-cultural and economic institutions, political and religious systems, and the role of language in the workings of power, indexicality and identity.
Antirequisite(s): Anthropology 1020 (formerly Anthropology 1020E), Anthropology 1021A/B.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
This course is also offered at:
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An introductory course teaching basic concepts in the study of socio-cultural and linguistic practices worldwide. It underscores shared human experiences as well as our rich diversity. Topics include, changing socio-cultural and economic institutions, political and religious systems, and the role of language in the workings of power, indexicality and identity.
Antirequisite(s): Anthropology 1020 (formerly Anthropology 1020E), Anthropology 1021A/B.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
This course is also offered at:
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An introduction to aspects of biological anthropology and archaeology which help us to understand the place of humankind in nature. Topics to be covered include heredity, human evolution and variability, archaeological method, the development of culture, the domestication of plants and animals, and the rise of civilization and the state.
Antirequisite(s): Anthropology 1020 (formerly Anthropology 1020E), Anthropology 1022A/B.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
This course is also offered at:
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An introduction to aspects of biological anthropology and archaeology which help us to understand the place of humankind in nature. Topics to be covered include heredity, human evolution and variability, archaeological method, the development of culture, the domestication of plants and animals, and the rise of civilization and the state.
Antirequisite(s): Anthropology 1020 (formerly Anthropology 1020E), Anthropology 1022A/B.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
This course is also offered at:
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Introduction to basic concepts and methods of modern linguistics. Topics include articulatory and acoustic phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. This course is a prerequisite for subsequent linguistics courses in the Department of Anthropology and/or the Linguistics program.
Antirequisite(s): Linguistics 2288A/B.
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hour.
Course Weight: 0.50
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The field of archaeology, with emphasis on the major discoveries of the discipline. Topics include the evolution of humans, their spread throughout the world, the origins of agriculture, urbanization, and the development of early civilizations. Major archaeological sites like Olduvai Gorge, Stonehenge, Giza, Ur and Teotihuacan will be discussed.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 1.00
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An examination of spectacular archaeological sites around the world, including many on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The course covers sites of complex hunter-gatherers and farmers, and early states and empires in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Aegean, Asia and Mesoamerica, the Andes and the Classical World.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Today, with over half the world population living in cities, urban field sites have become the norm for many anthropologists. Through case studies, this course introduces key topics, debates, and insights associated with urban anthropology and invites reflection on the contributions anthropology can make to urban studies.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An examination of natural resource development emphasizing the interplay between indigenous people, the state and transnational developers. Topics include: environmentalism and livelihood; land rights; corporate power and state policies; common property and community-based resource management; NGOs in environmental politics; sustainability and the greening of development.
Antirequisite(s): Indigenous Studies 2203F/G.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An introduction to the Caribbean and circum- Caribbean, emphasizing religion, aesthetic styles, current political processes, and relationships of the region and its peoples to Canada.
Antirequisite(s): Indigenous Studies 2211F/G.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Focusing on the cultures of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia, this course reveals how people often understood as peripheral are at the centre of global processes. The course addresses topics including social structure, gender, politics, economies, ecologies, cosmologies, and the representation of Pacific peoples.
Antirequisite(s): Indigenous Studies 2212F/G.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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A journey into the political and economic history of the region that pays attention to the daily lives, as well as the momentous struggles, of its culturally diverse inhabitants. Topics covered include economic dependency and exploitation, urban poverty, social stratification, “race”, indigenous movements, state terror, peaceful resistance and revolution.
Antirequisite(s): Indigenous Studies 2216F/G.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An examination of the broad historical shifts and consequences of imperial domination reshaping people’s social and cultural worlds in the “Middle East”. Topics covered include: the rise of Islam including the Andalusian period, colonialism, Orientalism, media misrepresentations in western societies, class and gender, the Arab uprisings and popular culture.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2219F/G.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Sociocultural Anthropologists commonly debate the foundations of their discipline. What are the goals of Sociocultural Anthropology? How should we be doing it, and why? For whom do we do it? This course contextualizes such key debates focusing especially on what they tell us about the discipline's past, present, and future.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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A survey of the major areas of biological anthropology, including heredity, paleo-anthropology, human adaptability and variability, and growth and development.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Special topics of current interest in Anthropology. List of special topics available in the Department.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course provides an overview of the goals, theory and analytical methods of archaeology as practised by anthropologists. The course serves to provide a basic appreciation of how one is able to go from the material remains of past peoples to statements about the nature of their cultural systems, and also, how archaeologists are uniquely poised to address certain general questions of concern to all anthropologists.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An overview and critical evaluation of reconstructions of past ways of life in the Arctic. The course will introduce Arctic cultures as understood through their material remains, critically examine Arctic archaeology's ongoing colonial foundations, and explore how climate change impacts and decolonizing efforts are reshaping archaeological practice in the north.
Antirequisite(s): Indigenous Studies 2230F/G.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course explores the archaeology of human migration—the material ways historic and contemporary movements shape our world. Topics include immigration, displacement, forced migration, diasporas, settler colonialism, and borders. Students will critically engage with migration narratives, past and present, by examining archaeological sites alongside myths that surround human movement today.
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Special topics related to a particular region of interest in archaeology, details of which will be available on the Department of Anthropology’s website when this course is offered.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course focuses on the archaeology of the original societies of Ontario and surrounding areas, covering topics including: the arrival of people in Ontario, the development of agriculture, the appearance of historic period societies such as the Huron-Wendat, Attawandaron/Chonnonton, Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee, and the impacts of European settlement and economic systems.
Antirequisite(s): Indigenous Studies 2233F/G.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course focuses on the archaeology of the Peruvian Andes and Coast, with some overlap into Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile and Amazonia. We will study the area's archaeological record in some detail, touching on a variety of themes that are of general archaeological interest including agriculture, trade, religion, the rise of large-scale societies, and the interpretation of archaeological evidence.
Antirequisite(s) at Main campus: Indigenous Studies 2234F/G.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
This course is also offered at:
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This course focuses on the archaeology of the Peruvian Andes and Coast, with some overlap into Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile and Amazonia. We will study the area's archaeological record in some detail, touching on a variety of themes that are of general archaeological interest including agriculture, trade, religion, the rise of large-scale societies, and the interpretation of archaeological evidence.
Antirequisite(s) at Main campus: Indigenous Studies 2234F/G.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
This course is also offered at:
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Recovering remains and identifying victims and perpetrators of crimes is at the core of forensic science. This course details methods used in crime scene analysis using a case study format. Topics include: archaeology, entomology, vital statistics (i.e., age, sex, stature, race) of skeletons, fingerprinting, and DNA (nuclear and mitochondrial).
Prerequisite(s): Any first year Social Science, Health Sciences, or Science course.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines the growth, development and aging of the human body using evolutionary, comparative and cross-cultural approaches. We will draw on practical methods from bioarchaeology and forensics, theoretical perspectives from biological evolution and evolutionary ecology, cultural aspects from cultural anthropology, and clinical perspectives from modern medical studies.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Humans are a remarkably adaptable species who have colonized almost all regions of our planet. This course examines the mechanisms that underlie our adaptability, including human biological diversity, the ways we adapt to environmental stress, and the resilience of our species in response to rapid environmental and cultural change.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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While alive our bodily tissues store a tremendous amount of information. These clues can be used to tell a lot about a person’s life and death. This information is explored in three contexts: Living Individuals, Recently Deceased Individuals (focus on forensic applications), and Older Deceased Individuals (focus on archaeological applications).
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Mummies are of interest to archaeologists and to the general public. Mummies are people and they speak to us from across the centuries. This course takes an interdisciplinary, scientific and cultural approach to the study of human mummies to discuss issues of ethics, science and cross-cultural perspectives on death.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course considers the evolution of the human body alongside niche construction, rapid cultural change, and environmental crises, focusing especially on how these interrelated processes affect patterns of human health and disease in the world today.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course introduces forensic anthropology – the study of human skeletal remains in medicolegal contexts – focusing especially on what is factual and fictional in how the field is represented in popular culture. Topics covered include core scientific principles, common narrative devices, and the effects of fictional portrayals of forensic research.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Introduces theories and methods of linguistic anthropology. Topics include: the relationship between language and thought, connections between linguistic practices and social categories, the role of language in cultural practices.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines reading and writing from an anthropological perspective. It looks at how writing originated based on archeological evidence and at the sociocultural consequences of this invention. Then it explores various writing systems around the world as well as the effects of the introduction of literacy in societies.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2246F/G.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Structures and patterns in spoken and written language are analyzed in interactional contexts using various models. Topics include: conversation analysis, speech acts, pragmatics, discourse markers, and transcription.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines the artful and playful use of spoken language in relation to social organization and cultural practices. Topics include: structures and patterns in speech play, participation of the audience in the performance, evaluation of competence, issues of authenticity and identity, and the tension between tradition and innovation.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2250F/G.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course explores the relationship between language and sex/gender systems from a critical linguistic anthropological perspective. Areas investigated include: language and gender stereotypes; gender variation in language usage; power and women's status; and male vs female communicative styles in different contexts. An essay on a relevant topic is required.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2251F/G, the former Anthropology 2151A/B.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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We examine languages and dialects that are associated with particular regions, cultures, and/or ethnic groups in Canada, including Indigenous languages, French, English and immigrant languages. We consider language structures, variation and ways that languages relate to the identity of groups which speak them.
Antirequisite(s): Anthropology 2152A/B.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course focuses on endangered languages and the local and global factors affecting language vitality and revival. Practical strategies for sustaining and reviving languages, including language documentation and revitalization, will be addressed with examples coming from various areas of the world and special focus on Indigenous languages of the Americas.
Antirequisite(s): Indigenous Studies 2253A/B.
Extra Information: 3 hours per week. Cross-listed with Indigenous Studies 2253A/B.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course explores the relationship between language and race/ethnicity from a critical linguistic anthropological perspective. Areas investigated may include: raciolinguistics, ethnolects, linguistic discrimination, racism and anti-racism, crossing, mocking and appropriation, among others.
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hour.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Critical assessment of feminist theory and methodology for cross-cultural interpretations. Topics include: critical examination of gender, division of labor, power, production and reproduction, ideology, communication, "nature"; controversies over nature/nurture, nature/culture, public/private.
Prerequisite(s): Any Arts and Humanities or Social Science 0.5 or 1.0 Essay course.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 1.00
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When you hear “ruin,” what comes to mind? This course examines ruins (material traces) and ruination (processes of decay) through an anthropological and archaeological lens. We will discuss themes of heritage, memory, haunting, nationalism, and abandonment, paying attention to the myriad and contested ways ruins exist in a meaningful present.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines how changing notions of social control, sanitation, property value, class, security, and individual well-being have shaped the social production of green spaces in urban environments. We will also explore how green spaces are experienced by urban inhabitants and influence their imagination of the city.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Archaeology is often portrayed in popular culture: on television and in the movies, on the internet, in comics, video games and news media. This course examines how both non-archaeologists and archaeologists present archaeology to the public and considers what these representations imply about the relationship between archaeology and modern society.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2261F/G.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course focuses on communities of commodity producers and consumers in an integrated global political economy. Weekly lectures centre on particular commodities (rubber, gold, sapphires, oil, water, etc.) and on how anthropologists have attempted to study the roots and effects of their production and consumption.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2262F/G.
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Bodies are physical and sensual, personal and public, the result of evolution, and yet flexibly attuned to local histories and desires. This course will take a biocultural approach to exploring what bodies are, how they are used, by whom, for what purposes, and how we come to know such things.
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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A consideration of conservation issues confronting primatologists, including: conservation assessment, variables for understanding the conservation biology of nonhuman primate populations, biogeographic patterns contributing to declining primate populations, strategies in primate conservation, and how ethnoprimatology - the study of interactions between humans and nonhuman primate populations - can be useful in primate conservation.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2264F/G.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course considers the behavioral patterns, and diversity, exhibited across species of the Order Primates. Critical examination of theoretical models developed to explain primate behavior is emphasized. Topics covered, using species comparisons, include socioecological contexts of primate behavior, reproduction, growth and development, kinship and dominance, communication and cognition.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2265F/G.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Modern zoos characterize themselves as key players in conserving endangered species. But, is this message getting across to zoo visitors? This course utilizes anthropological and interdisciplinary approaches to assess key aspects of zoo-based conservation action, and the extent to which zoos can generate public engagement in 21st century conservation concerns.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Human interactions with other animals have shaped the history of our species. This course explores the relationships between people and animals across cultures, from the distant past to the present day. Drawing on archaeology and biological, sociocultural, and linguistic anthropology, we will examine how these relationships have changed over time.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines the dynamics of family and kinship cross-culturally in traditional and globalizing contexts. We will explore themes including variability in family form, marriage patterns, gender relations, household economics, historical change in family structure, and the effects of globalization and modernity on family structure and practice.
Prerequisite(s): Any Arts and Humanities or Social Science 0.5 or 1.0 Essay course.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines various aspects of tourism from an anthropological point of view. Topics will include the cultural effects of tourism on both hosts and guests, on the political and economic issues involved in tourism, on the connection between tourism and environmental concerns, and on conflict over local resources.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Our daily lives involve the purchase and consumption of “lots of stuff.” More than simply being about individual materialism, this course explores how shopping is a cultural practice. We will learn how to closely observe shopping environments to discover what people’s procurement practices reveal about their social relationships and identities.
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course explores sex and gender as concepts that are socially and culturally constructed within and across cultures. Emphasizing critical and thoughtful reading, analysis, and discussion, the course addresses how shared understandings of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion and class affect people’s experiences of their social worlds.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course takes an anthropological approach to exploring music as an aspect of culture in both present and ancient societies. It focuses on how music is used to negotiate individual and collective identities in multiple world contexts using methods and issues relating to the ethnographic study of music behaviours.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2276F/G.
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course explores anthropological approaches to the study of crisis, disaster, and emergency. We will look at theoretical frameworks for understanding disaster and apply them to case studies of disasters ranging from fires and hurricane to earthquakes and humanitarian emergencies.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2277F/G.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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What are these categories of race, ethnicity and identity? These are hotly contested categories that are constantly shifting. This course will introduce students to anthropological conceptions of race and ethnicity and how these have shaped human identity over the 19th through 21st centuries.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2278F/G.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course uses ethnographic and historical cases to explore how ethical and moral values are embedded in social and cultural contexts and how social encounters may bring alternative or competing ethical registers into contact and conflict. Topics include virtue ethics, caregiving, reciprocity, volunteerism, charity, and global humanitarianism.
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course explores the economic lives of people across a variety of cultures. Topics will include social and political economy, economics and morality, gifts and exchange, labour and production, commodities and consumption, fair trade, and concepts of land and mortgage.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An introduction to anthropological perspectives on international development. This course addresses the impacts of market institutions, international aid, wage labour, urbanization, and various industries on societies around the world, drawing attention to the distinctive perspectives and interests of people targeted by development initiatives.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course will examine human migration from an anthropological perspective that includes a brief historical overview of human mobility, case studies from around the world, and theoretical attempts to explain and predict human migration.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2282F/G.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines populations forcibly uprooted from their original habitats due to armed conflict, famine, environmental disasters and 'development.' It emphasizes the need to examine displacement in specific contexts. Topics include: the impact of displacement on society and culture, 'home' and exile, humanitarian aid, resistance and resilience in host-countries.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2283F/G.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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A comparative study of the role of new information and communications technologies in the developing world. Topics include: connectivity and access; adoptions and appropriations; communications in development; mobile
phones and transnational migration; youth, gender and mobile technologies; the internet and popular politics; new technologies and expanded worlds.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course focuses on the anthropological study of clothing and fashion. It will critically examine the meaning of clothing and the role it plays in the formation of identities and the negotiation of power inequalities. It will further explore the social and political-economic processes that influence clothing production and consumption.
Antirequisite(s): Anthropology 2293F/G taken in 2015-2016.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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A survey of the past and present of computation and its interconnections with society and culture. Topics will include: the origins of computation and industrialism, the intersections of race/class/gender and computers, militarism and computation, computational infrastructure, and emerging debates around artificial intelligence, blockchain, and more.
Extra Information: Blended, 2 in-person lecture hours and 1 asynchronous online.
Course Weight: 0.50
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The world is changing in more ways than one. Global temperatures are rising, and social and political upheavals are reshaping the way we respond to environmental change. This course examines the role of science in these processes and how scientists and scientific institutions are adapting to a changing world.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An exploration of the social and cultural basis of health, disability, disease, and healing. We will examine patterns of illness and epidemics, social and cultural aspects of risk, the use of ritual in healing, and the politics of health, among other issues, from an ethnographic and historical perspective.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2290F/G.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course will explore the methodology of fieldwork in Sociocultural Anthropology. The emphasis will be less on reading about anthropology and more on actually doing what anthropologists do. Assignments will focus on participant observation and include talking with people, observing what they are doing and taking part in their activities.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2223F/G.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in Year 3 or 4 in any Anthropology module.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Students elicit and record linguistic data from a native speaker of a designated language and then study its phonological and lexical-grammatical systems. Selected aspects of the language are analyzed in terms of current problems in linguistic theory.
Prerequisite(s): Linguistics 2247A/B and Linguistics 2248A/B.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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A survey of practical applications of linguistic theory. Topics may include discussion of the relevance of linguistic research to language teaching and learning, communication disorders, language policy development and language revitalization, translation and intercultural communication, media, law, business, communication technologies, and social justice.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2243F/G.
Prerequisite(s): Enrolment in third or fourth year, and Linguistics 2247A/B or Linguistics 2248A/B.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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The formation of collective identities is a process entwined with the production of historical narratives, especially in struggles against states, or to annex and dominate territories, or to secede from existing states. Based on case studies, the topics covered include: history/memory/identity-making, repression/resistance, displacement, nation-states and citizenship, sovereignty and territory.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third year or above.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course provides a practical introduction to field methods and preliminary laboratory techniques of archaeology. Practical training will be given at a field camp to be held at an archaeological site near London.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2229F/G. Application Required.
Extra Information: Course details and application available on Anthropology Department website.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines contemporary theoretical frameworks in
archaeology and explores how they shape and are shaped by current issues, the development of new methods, and archaeological practice around the globe.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2229F/G.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An overview of issues concerning hunter-gatherers from both an archaeological and ethnographic perspective. Topics include: the usefulness of the "hunter-gatherer" category, debates about the original state of human nature, and the causes of subsistence and societal variability including the shift to agriculture and the development of non-egalitarian societies.
Prerequisite(s): Any Arts and Humanities or Social Science 0.5 or 1.0 Essay course.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An introduction to the range of information about past human groups gleaned from the animal remains. Lectures will cover various topics in zooarchaeological theory and practice. Labs will teach the basics of skeletal identification for fish, birds and mammals, and will provide experience in the identification of fragmentary archaeological remains.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2229F/G.
Extra Information: 3 lecture/lab hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An introduction to current theoretical and methodological issues in bioarchaeology. Use of ancient human, animal, and plant tissues to reconstruct relationships among biology, culture and environment in international contexts is emphasized. Topics include: diet, demography, disease, identity, mobility, landscape, childhood, gender, ideology, political economy, violence, work, urbanism, and globalization.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2226A/B or Anthropology 2229F/G or instructor's permission.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines how archaeologists interpret the archaeological record dating from European colonial expansion to the emergence of modern capitalism. We will explore how the material and written record allow archaeologists to understand class, gender, racial and power differences, and consider the implications of these findings for contemporary archaeological practice.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2229F/G or Anthropology 2233F/G.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course provides students with a hands-on introduction to the identification, analysis and interpretation of a range of archaeological artifacts including lithics, ceramics and organics. Students will work with archaeological collections that are available for analysis.
Extra information: 3 hours.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2229F/G or permission of the instructor.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An advanced, hands-on introduction to the practice of field archaeology. Students will participate in intensive, problem-oriented, research excavations and field laboratory work on an undisturbed archaeological site. Students should be prepared to cover necessary travel and living expenses.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2229F/G, and registration in third year or above in any Anthropology module.
Extra Information: Limited enrollment. Four weeks. Permission by application to the Department of Anthropology. Students intending to apply to participate in this course are strongly encouraged to prepare by taking a relevant second year area course in archaeology.
Course Weight: 1.00
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This course offers students the opportunity to study current issues in anthropology through participation in extended fieldtrips and collaborative research projects during Intersession or summer terms. Students should be prepared to cover necessary travel and living expenses. Details typically will be available in the Department by October. Applications required.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in year 3 or 4 of any module and permission of the instructor.
Course Weight: 1.00
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This course offers students the opportunity to study current issues in environmental anthropology through participation in extended fieldtrips and collaborative research projects during Intersession or summer terms. Students should be prepared to cover necessary travel and living expenses. Applications required and available in on Anthropology website.
Prerequisite(s): Application required.
Extra Information: 4 weeks.
Course Weight: 1.00
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This course offers students the opportunity to study current issues in anthropology through participation in short-term fieldtrips and collaborative research projects during Intersession or summer terms. Students should be prepared to cover necessary travel and living expenses. Details typically will be available in the Department by October. Applications required.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in year 3 or 4 of any module and permission of the instructor.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course is about doing fieldwork to preserve an archaeological site using non-invasive and minimally intrusive methods. Fieldwork will focus on the archaeology of past archaeologies, the use of geophysical equipment, and address the contested heritage values such locales hold in society that we as archaeologists need to service.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third year or above.
Extra Information: Application available on Anthropology Department website. 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Individual reading and research of current interest in Anthropology. Students are responsible for making arrangements with an Anthropology faculty member. An application must be completed with approval from the Instructor and the Chair. Applications are available on the Anthropology website.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third year or above.
Extra Information: Application available on Anthropology Department website.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Special topics of current interest in Anthropology. List of special topics may be available in the Department.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third year or above.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Ethnographies are the written products of fieldwork in sociocultural anthropology. This course will introduce students to ethnography by guiding them through readings of classic and recent examples of the genre, concerning diverse topics, people and contexts. Special attention will be paid to the relationship between ethnographic research and writing.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third or fourth year in any Anthropology module.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines how various stages in the human lifecourse are understood and experienced differently in diverse socio-cultural contexts. It begins with a cross-cultural examination of theories of conception and then proceeds similarly through discussions of birth, infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, elderhood, death and the afterlife.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third year or above.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course will combine general principles of vertebrate paleontology and evolutionary biology to examine the fossil evidence for primate and human evolution. Important events, such as primate and hominid origins will be investigated in detail, emphasizing the cross-disciplinary nature of this field of study.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2226A/B.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course provides an overview of the fossil evidence for human evolution as a background for the critical examination of controversies in the field. Areas to be explored include human taxonomy, the evolution of human behaviour and the origin of modern humans.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2226A/B.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An exploration of the role that skeletal material plays in providing anthropological information. Emphasis will be placed on the analytical techniques used in osteology and odontology for: measuring biological adaptability in archaeological populations; creating individual biographies; the reconstruction of cultural activities.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2226A/B.
Extra Information: 1 lecture hour, 2 laboratory hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course uses approaches from sociolinguistics and historical linguistics to explore topics related to variation across and within languages and linguistic changes over time. Topics covered may include: sound change, morphological change, syntactic change, linguistic reconstruction, variations according to class, gender, age, ethnicity, communities of practice, and place.
Prerequisite(s): Linguistics 2247A/B and registration in third or fourth year of any Linguistics or Anthropology module.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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The role of bioanthropology in the genesis of the emerging field of evolutionary medicine is explored. We examine the natural history of the diseases that affect modern western societies as reconstructed from our ancestral remains and historical texts, and the implications of disease history for understanding causes of modern diseases.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An examination of cultural attitudes to diet and subsistence and their effects on human biology in both ancient and modern contexts. Areas to be explored include: subsistence strategies and modelling; food ideology and metaphor; processing and preparation; the effects of diet on growth and development; diet related diseases.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2222F/G and Anthropology 2226A/B and registration in year 3 or 4 in any module.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course offers students the opportunity to study current issues in language revitalization through participation in collaborative research projects on site with a community partner. Projects will vary depending on the needs of the community and the skillset brought by the students.
Antirequisite(s): Indigenous Studies 3306A/B.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in year 3 or 4 of any module and by application available on the Anthropology Department Website.
Extra Information: lecture/fieldwork, 3 hours.
Recommended for students in Anthropology, Indigenous Studies or Linguistics.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course explores where anthropology came from, what influenced its early questions, and how those questions evolved over time, through an examination of some classic anthropological work on society and culture.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third or fourth year in any Anthropology module.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines the various principles through which societies are organized, by examining the construction of social formations and social identities over time in contexts of differential power.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 3350F.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course will provide students with a foundation to think critically about occupying health and disability and to use an anthropological lens to provide students with skills to critically evaluate health- occupation- and disability-related experiences both locally and globally.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third or fourth year in any Anthropology module or Disability Studies module.
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 1 hour online.
Course Weight: 0.50
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As one of the most popular monsters in film, zombies speak to us about our own desires and fears. This course locates the contemporary figure of the zombie in cultural and historical perspective, with specific focus on the zombie in Haitian and American cultures.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third year or above.
Extra Information: 3 hours per week.
Course Weight: 0.50
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In this course we will use anthropology as a lens to analyze, evaluate and interpret embodiment. Topics may include: sex, gender, and sexuality; pregnancy; function, performance, and athleticism; race; disability; obesity vs. fat pride; body modification (tattoos, adornment, surgery, assistive devices); body-mind; surveillance and management of bodies in life and death.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third year or above.
Extra Information: 2 hours in class and 1 hour asynchronous online.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course focuses on the many ways in which anthropologists, Indigenous communities and artists have helped create a picture of northern landscapes and peoples and how in turn those pictures shape our (dis)engagement with critical issues facing the contemporary arctic.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third or fourth year in any program.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Students registered in this course will receive credit for participating in an organized research project, experiential learning program, or field course that has been pre-approved by the department. Students must seek approval from the department before committing to any such project, program, or course.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in any Anthropology Module.
Extra Information: Students who complete the requirements of this research practicum will receive a “Pass” and not a numerical grade.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Anthropologists are trained with a unique set of knowledge and research skills that can be applied to urgent issues facing people and communities around the world. This course will examine the ethics, theories, and methods of applied anthropology and the range of topics and issues that anthropologists can address.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course addresses anthropological approaches to race and ethnicity in historical and contemporary literatures from 19th-21st centuries, studying experiences of racialized groups such as African Diaspora, Uyghur, Latinx, and Indigenous peoples. We will look at anthropology's troubled legacy and the voices of emerging scholars who are forging new approaches.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2278F/G or permission of the instructor.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Humans have been indirectly and directly biohacking for millennia. This course considers the evidence for human ‘self-engineering’ throughout human evolution, recent human history, and today, focusing on broad comparative perspectives on cultural influences on human anatomy, physiology, genetics, and the ethics and social context of conscious human self-modification.
Prerequisite(s): Completion of first year, including at least 0.5 courses in Social Science, Science or Health Sciences. Recommended but not required: Anthropology 2226A/B, 2237A/B or 2240A/B.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course will explore contemporary and historical socio-cultural anthropological research about intersectional identities in Brazil. We will look at intersections of gender, race, class, sexuality, disability among other identities. This course has a classroom component as well as the expectation of participation in an international faculty-led trip to Brazil.
Prerequisite(s): 1.0 credit in Anthropology, or by permission of instructor.
Extra Information: Blended. 2 lecture hours in-person, 1 hour asynchronous online.
Course Weight: 0.50
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In this course, we will examine Black religious experiences in the Black Diaspora. Through discussion of ethnographic texts and anthropological concepts, we will investigate the complex history and experiences of Black religious expressions. Additionally, the class will consider the interplay among religion, race, gender, and sexuality within Black communities.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Advanced special topics in refugee and migrant studies.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third year or above.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third or fourth year in any program.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third or fourth year in any program.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third or fourth year in any program.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third or fourth year in any program.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third or fourth year in any program.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course explores current anthropological debates, trends in anthropological practice, and contemporary theoretical frameworks that inform the ways in which anthropology is applied within and outside of universities.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 4400E.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 3350F, and registration in Year 4 in any Anthropology module.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course explores digitizing archaeology and interacting with the past digitally. The intent is to understand the implications for practice, and for the digital heritage arising from a digital archaeology. Digital novices and experienced users will easily manage the expectations for this course, including hands-on experiences using digital equipment.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in fourth year in Anthropology, and permission of the instructor determined by application.
Extra Information: 3 hours per week.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course will explore disease and diet in past human populations. A range of topics within paleopathology, the study of ancient disease, and paleodiet, the study of ancient diet, will be investigated to learn what can and cannot be discerned about human health in the past.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in fourth year in Anthropology, and permission of the instructor. Completion of Anthropology 3338F/G is recommended.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Through an anthropological approach to the study of ethics and morality, the course explores how value and meaning are socially, culturally, and historically produced. It covers a range of ethnographic case studies that explore how ethical and moral values operate in various contexts, from everyday talk to international humanitarian intervention.
Prerequisite(s): Fourth-year in an Anthropology module and by application (see Department website).
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines the theory and methods of virtual anthropology. Students will conduct anthropological research in virtual contexts and explore similarities and differences between virtual and traditional ethnography. To align with the practice of the field, this course will be held online, and students will use multiple virtual platforms.
Prerequisite(s): Enrolment in fourth year and by application available on the Anthropology Department website.
Extra Information: Online.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines linkages between linguistic practices and relations of power, drawing primarily on tools and methodologies of Linguistic Anthropology and Discourse Analysis. Topics such as racism, disability, migration will be addressed.
Prerequisite(s): Enrolment in fourth year and by application available on the Anthropology Department website.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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In this course, we will read a variety of ethnographies to understand how language is employed. The goal will be to see: 1) how language is used effectively in ethnographies; 2) what role language-based data has; and 3) how research about language is presented.
Prerequisite(s): Enrolment in fourth year and by application available on the Anthropology Department website.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Material culture encompasses the relationships between people and their material world (e.g., objects, landscapes, written records, architecture). This course offers a hands-on approach to the archaeological theorization, identification, recordation, and analysis of material culture of the 19th and 20th centuries. Students will work with real collections to complete term projects.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2229F/G and registration in third or fourth year in any Anthropology module, or permission of the instructor.
Extra Information: 3 hours (1 lecture hour, 2 laboratory hours).
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course explores the interaction between habitual activity and energetics throughout human evolution, prehistory, and the recent past. Particular focus will be placed on the energetic biology of species, and how it has changed throughout human evolution in relation to habitual activity and changing resources use.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in fourth year in Anthropology and permission of the instructor.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Anthropology 2226A/B and Anthropology 3336F/G are recommended prior to registration.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course explores how analytical techniques are applied in archaeology and bioanthropology. The focus is not on any specific analytical technique per se. Rather, the coursefocuses on the theoretical context and paradigm within which techniques are applied and results interpreted and the broad anthropological questions that they can address.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in fourth year in Anthropology and permission of the instructor.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Completion of Anthropology 3308F/G and/or Anthropology 3311F/G is recommended prior to registration.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course takes a cross-cultural and deep temporal perspective on how different societies have dealt with death. Mortuary archaeology draws on different threads in Anthropology, including ethnography, bioarchaeology, and archaeological theory. It also reaches beyond Anthropology to take an interdisciplinary perspective on how societies deal with death.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in fourth year in Anthropology, and permission of the instructor determined by application. A minimum grade average of 80% in 2200-level and higher Anthropology courses is recommended.
Extra Information: 3 hours per week.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course will examine the principles and concerns that are integral to the practice of applied archaeology in North America and the role of applied archaeology in heritage management. The course will review legislation and professional practices that govern applied archaeologists who undertake Cultural Resource Management (CRM).
Prerequisite(s): Registration in fourth year in Anthropology. Application Required.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Individual reading and research of current interest in Anthropology. Students are responsible for making arrangements with an Anthropology faculty member. An application must be completed with approval from the Instructor and the Chair. Applications are available on the Anthropology website.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in fourth year in any program with approval from the Instructor and the Department Chair.
Extra Information: Hours to be arranged with Instructor.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Special topics of current interest in Anthropology. List of special topics may be available in the Department.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in fourth year in any program.
Extra Information: 3 lecture/seminar hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Students will be integrated into a faculty research project, gaining hands-on experience in research through sustained interaction with a faculty supervisor. The instructor and the student will apply to the Department Chair detailing the research activities that the student will undertake; approval from Department Chair required.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in fourth year in any Anthropology module, with a minimum average of 80% in courses at the 2000-level and above, or instructor permission.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Special topics of current interest in Anthropology. List of special topics may be available in the Department.
Prerequisite(s): Application required.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Special topics of current interest in Anthropology. List of special topics may be available in the Department.
Prerequisite(s): Application required.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Special topics of current interest in Anthropology. List of special topics may be available in the Department.
Prerequisite(s): Application required.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Special topics of current interest in Anthropology. List of special topics may be available in the Department.
Prerequisite(s): Application required.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Special topics of current interest in Anthropology. List of special topics may be available in the Department.
Prerequisite(s): Application required.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Special topics of current interest in Anthropology. List of special topics may be available in the Department.
Prerequisite(s): Application required.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Anthropology
An introduction to anthropology (the study of human beings, past and present) co-taught by specialists in biological anthropology, archaeology, linguistic anthropology, and sociocultural anthropology. Students will explore anthropological approaches to and findings concerning: human evolution; variation and adaptation; diverse forms of social, political, and economic organization; culture; ritual; language; communication; identity; gender; health; social inequality; and globalization.
Antirequisite(s): Anthropology 1021A/B, Anthropology 1022A/B, Anthropology 1025F/G, Anthropology 1026F/G.
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hour.
Note: Students interested in earning essay course credit are encouraged to take Anthropology 1025F/G and Anthropology 1026F/G instead of Anthropology 1020.
Course Weight: 1.00
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An introductory course teaching basic concepts in the study of socio-cultural and linguistic practices worldwide. It underscores shared human experiences as well as our rich diversity. Topics include, changing socio-cultural and economic institutions, political and religious systems, and the role of language in the workings of power, indexicality and identity.
Antirequisite(s): Anthropology 1020 (formerly Anthropology 1020E), Anthropology 1025F/G.
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hour.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An introduction to aspects of Biological Anthropology and Archaeology which help us to understand the place of humankind in nature. Topics to be covered include heredity, human evolution and variability, archaeological method, the development of culture, the domestication of plants and animals, and the rise of civilization and the state.
Antirequisite(s): Anthropology 1020 (formerly Anthropology 1020E), Anthropology 1026F/G.
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hour.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An introductory course teaching basic concepts in the study of socio-cultural and linguistic practices worldwide. It underscores shared human experiences as well as our rich diversity. Topics include, changing socio-cultural and economic institutions, political and religious systems, and the role of language in the workings of power, indexicality and identity.
Antirequisite(s): Anthropology 1020 (formerly Anthropology 1020E), Anthropology 1021A/B.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
This course is also offered at:
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An introductory course teaching basic concepts in the study of socio-cultural and linguistic practices worldwide. It underscores shared human experiences as well as our rich diversity. Topics include, changing socio-cultural and economic institutions, political and religious systems, and the role of language in the workings of power, indexicality and identity.
Antirequisite(s): Anthropology 1020 (formerly Anthropology 1020E), Anthropology 1021A/B.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
This course is also offered at:
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An introduction to aspects of biological anthropology and archaeology which help us to understand the place of humankind in nature. Topics to be covered include heredity, human evolution and variability, archaeological method, the development of culture, the domestication of plants and animals, and the rise of civilization and the state.
Antirequisite(s): Anthropology 1020 (formerly Anthropology 1020E), Anthropology 1022A/B.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
This course is also offered at:
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An introduction to aspects of biological anthropology and archaeology which help us to understand the place of humankind in nature. Topics to be covered include heredity, human evolution and variability, archaeological method, the development of culture, the domestication of plants and animals, and the rise of civilization and the state.
Antirequisite(s): Anthropology 1020 (formerly Anthropology 1020E), Anthropology 1022A/B.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
This course is also offered at:
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Introduction to basic concepts and methods of modern linguistics. Topics include articulatory and acoustic phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. This course is a prerequisite for subsequent linguistics courses in the Department of Anthropology and/or the Linguistics program.
Antirequisite(s): Linguistics 2288A/B.
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hour.
Course Weight: 0.50
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The field of archaeology, with emphasis on the major discoveries of the discipline. Topics include the evolution of humans, their spread throughout the world, the origins of agriculture, urbanization, and the development of early civilizations. Major archaeological sites like Olduvai Gorge, Stonehenge, Giza, Ur and Teotihuacan will be discussed.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 1.00
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An examination of spectacular archaeological sites around the world, including many on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The course covers sites of complex hunter-gatherers and farmers, and early states and empires in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Aegean, Asia and Mesoamerica, the Andes and the Classical World.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Today, with over half the world population living in cities, urban field sites have become the norm for many anthropologists. Through case studies, this course introduces key topics, debates, and insights associated with urban anthropology and invites reflection on the contributions anthropology can make to urban studies.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An examination of natural resource development emphasizing the interplay between indigenous people, the state and transnational developers. Topics include: environmentalism and livelihood; land rights; corporate power and state policies; common property and community-based resource management; NGOs in environmental politics; sustainability and the greening of development.
Antirequisite(s): Indigenous Studies 2203F/G.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An introduction to the Caribbean and circum- Caribbean, emphasizing religion, aesthetic styles, current political processes, and relationships of the region and its peoples to Canada.
Antirequisite(s): Indigenous Studies 2211F/G.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Focusing on the cultures of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia, this course reveals how people often understood as peripheral are at the centre of global processes. The course addresses topics including social structure, gender, politics, economies, ecologies, cosmologies, and the representation of Pacific peoples.
Antirequisite(s): Indigenous Studies 2212F/G.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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A journey into the political and economic history of the region that pays attention to the daily lives, as well as the momentous struggles, of its culturally diverse inhabitants. Topics covered include economic dependency and exploitation, urban poverty, social stratification, “race”, indigenous movements, state terror, peaceful resistance and revolution.
Antirequisite(s): Indigenous Studies 2216F/G.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An examination of the broad historical shifts and consequences of imperial domination reshaping people’s social and cultural worlds in the “Middle East”. Topics covered include: the rise of Islam including the Andalusian period, colonialism, Orientalism, media misrepresentations in western societies, class and gender, the Arab uprisings and popular culture.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2219F/G.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Sociocultural Anthropologists commonly debate the foundations of their discipline. What are the goals of Sociocultural Anthropology? How should we be doing it, and why? For whom do we do it? This course contextualizes such key debates focusing especially on what they tell us about the discipline's past, present, and future.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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A survey of the major areas of biological anthropology, including heredity, paleo-anthropology, human adaptability and variability, and growth and development.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Special topics of current interest in Anthropology. List of special topics available in the Department.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course provides an overview of the goals, theory and analytical methods of archaeology as practised by anthropologists. The course serves to provide a basic appreciation of how one is able to go from the material remains of past peoples to statements about the nature of their cultural systems, and also, how archaeologists are uniquely poised to address certain general questions of concern to all anthropologists.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An overview and critical evaluation of reconstructions of past ways of life in the Arctic. The course will introduce Arctic cultures as understood through their material remains, critically examine Arctic archaeology's ongoing colonial foundations, and explore how climate change impacts and decolonizing efforts are reshaping archaeological practice in the north.
Antirequisite(s): Indigenous Studies 2230F/G.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course explores the archaeology of human migration—the material ways historic and contemporary movements shape our world. Topics include immigration, displacement, forced migration, diasporas, settler colonialism, and borders. Students will critically engage with migration narratives, past and present, by examining archaeological sites alongside myths that surround human movement today.
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Special topics related to a particular region of interest in archaeology, details of which will be available on the Department of Anthropology’s website when this course is offered.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course focuses on the archaeology of the original societies of Ontario and surrounding areas, covering topics including: the arrival of people in Ontario, the development of agriculture, the appearance of historic period societies such as the Huron-Wendat, Attawandaron/Chonnonton, Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee, and the impacts of European settlement and economic systems.
Antirequisite(s): Indigenous Studies 2233F/G.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course focuses on the archaeology of the Peruvian Andes and Coast, with some overlap into Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile and Amazonia. We will study the area's archaeological record in some detail, touching on a variety of themes that are of general archaeological interest including agriculture, trade, religion, the rise of large-scale societies, and the interpretation of archaeological evidence.
Antirequisite(s) at Main campus: Indigenous Studies 2234F/G.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
This course is also offered at:
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This course focuses on the archaeology of the Peruvian Andes and Coast, with some overlap into Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile and Amazonia. We will study the area's archaeological record in some detail, touching on a variety of themes that are of general archaeological interest including agriculture, trade, religion, the rise of large-scale societies, and the interpretation of archaeological evidence.
Antirequisite(s) at Main campus: Indigenous Studies 2234F/G.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
This course is also offered at:
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Recovering remains and identifying victims and perpetrators of crimes is at the core of forensic science. This course details methods used in crime scene analysis using a case study format. Topics include: archaeology, entomology, vital statistics (i.e., age, sex, stature, race) of skeletons, fingerprinting, and DNA (nuclear and mitochondrial).
Prerequisite(s): Any first year Social Science, Health Sciences, or Science course.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines the growth, development and aging of the human body using evolutionary, comparative and cross-cultural approaches. We will draw on practical methods from bioarchaeology and forensics, theoretical perspectives from biological evolution and evolutionary ecology, cultural aspects from cultural anthropology, and clinical perspectives from modern medical studies.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Humans are a remarkably adaptable species who have colonized almost all regions of our planet. This course examines the mechanisms that underlie our adaptability, including human biological diversity, the ways we adapt to environmental stress, and the resilience of our species in response to rapid environmental and cultural change.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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While alive our bodily tissues store a tremendous amount of information. These clues can be used to tell a lot about a person’s life and death. This information is explored in three contexts: Living Individuals, Recently Deceased Individuals (focus on forensic applications), and Older Deceased Individuals (focus on archaeological applications).
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Mummies are of interest to archaeologists and to the general public. Mummies are people and they speak to us from across the centuries. This course takes an interdisciplinary, scientific and cultural approach to the study of human mummies to discuss issues of ethics, science and cross-cultural perspectives on death.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course considers the evolution of the human body alongside niche construction, rapid cultural change, and environmental crises, focusing especially on how these interrelated processes affect patterns of human health and disease in the world today.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course introduces forensic anthropology – the study of human skeletal remains in medicolegal contexts – focusing especially on what is factual and fictional in how the field is represented in popular culture. Topics covered include core scientific principles, common narrative devices, and the effects of fictional portrayals of forensic research.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Introduces theories and methods of linguistic anthropology. Topics include: the relationship between language and thought, connections between linguistic practices and social categories, the role of language in cultural practices.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines reading and writing from an anthropological perspective. It looks at how writing originated based on archeological evidence and at the sociocultural consequences of this invention. Then it explores various writing systems around the world as well as the effects of the introduction of literacy in societies.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2246F/G.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Structures and patterns in spoken and written language are analyzed in interactional contexts using various models. Topics include: conversation analysis, speech acts, pragmatics, discourse markers, and transcription.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines the artful and playful use of spoken language in relation to social organization and cultural practices. Topics include: structures and patterns in speech play, participation of the audience in the performance, evaluation of competence, issues of authenticity and identity, and the tension between tradition and innovation.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2250F/G.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course explores the relationship between language and sex/gender systems from a critical linguistic anthropological perspective. Areas investigated include: language and gender stereotypes; gender variation in language usage; power and women's status; and male vs female communicative styles in different contexts. An essay on a relevant topic is required.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2251F/G, the former Anthropology 2151A/B.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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We examine languages and dialects that are associated with particular regions, cultures, and/or ethnic groups in Canada, including Indigenous languages, French, English and immigrant languages. We consider language structures, variation and ways that languages relate to the identity of groups which speak them.
Antirequisite(s): Anthropology 2152A/B.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course focuses on endangered languages and the local and global factors affecting language vitality and revival. Practical strategies for sustaining and reviving languages, including language documentation and revitalization, will be addressed with examples coming from various areas of the world and special focus on Indigenous languages of the Americas.
Antirequisite(s): Indigenous Studies 2253A/B.
Extra Information: 3 hours per week. Cross-listed with Indigenous Studies 2253A/B.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course explores the relationship between language and race/ethnicity from a critical linguistic anthropological perspective. Areas investigated may include: raciolinguistics, ethnolects, linguistic discrimination, racism and anti-racism, crossing, mocking and appropriation, among others.
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 1 tutorial hour.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Critical assessment of feminist theory and methodology for cross-cultural interpretations. Topics include: critical examination of gender, division of labor, power, production and reproduction, ideology, communication, "nature"; controversies over nature/nurture, nature/culture, public/private.
Prerequisite(s): Any Arts and Humanities or Social Science 0.5 or 1.0 Essay course.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 1.00
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When you hear “ruin,” what comes to mind? This course examines ruins (material traces) and ruination (processes of decay) through an anthropological and archaeological lens. We will discuss themes of heritage, memory, haunting, nationalism, and abandonment, paying attention to the myriad and contested ways ruins exist in a meaningful present.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines how changing notions of social control, sanitation, property value, class, security, and individual well-being have shaped the social production of green spaces in urban environments. We will also explore how green spaces are experienced by urban inhabitants and influence their imagination of the city.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Archaeology is often portrayed in popular culture: on television and in the movies, on the internet, in comics, video games and news media. This course examines how both non-archaeologists and archaeologists present archaeology to the public and considers what these representations imply about the relationship between archaeology and modern society.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2261F/G.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course focuses on communities of commodity producers and consumers in an integrated global political economy. Weekly lectures centre on particular commodities (rubber, gold, sapphires, oil, water, etc.) and on how anthropologists have attempted to study the roots and effects of their production and consumption.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2262F/G.
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Bodies are physical and sensual, personal and public, the result of evolution, and yet flexibly attuned to local histories and desires. This course will take a biocultural approach to exploring what bodies are, how they are used, by whom, for what purposes, and how we come to know such things.
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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A consideration of conservation issues confronting primatologists, including: conservation assessment, variables for understanding the conservation biology of nonhuman primate populations, biogeographic patterns contributing to declining primate populations, strategies in primate conservation, and how ethnoprimatology - the study of interactions between humans and nonhuman primate populations - can be useful in primate conservation.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2264F/G.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course considers the behavioral patterns, and diversity, exhibited across species of the Order Primates. Critical examination of theoretical models developed to explain primate behavior is emphasized. Topics covered, using species comparisons, include socioecological contexts of primate behavior, reproduction, growth and development, kinship and dominance, communication and cognition.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2265F/G.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Modern zoos characterize themselves as key players in conserving endangered species. But, is this message getting across to zoo visitors? This course utilizes anthropological and interdisciplinary approaches to assess key aspects of zoo-based conservation action, and the extent to which zoos can generate public engagement in 21st century conservation concerns.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Human interactions with other animals have shaped the history of our species. This course explores the relationships between people and animals across cultures, from the distant past to the present day. Drawing on archaeology and biological, sociocultural, and linguistic anthropology, we will examine how these relationships have changed over time.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines the dynamics of family and kinship cross-culturally in traditional and globalizing contexts. We will explore themes including variability in family form, marriage patterns, gender relations, household economics, historical change in family structure, and the effects of globalization and modernity on family structure and practice.
Prerequisite(s): Any Arts and Humanities or Social Science 0.5 or 1.0 Essay course.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines various aspects of tourism from an anthropological point of view. Topics will include the cultural effects of tourism on both hosts and guests, on the political and economic issues involved in tourism, on the connection between tourism and environmental concerns, and on conflict over local resources.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Our daily lives involve the purchase and consumption of “lots of stuff.” More than simply being about individual materialism, this course explores how shopping is a cultural practice. We will learn how to closely observe shopping environments to discover what people’s procurement practices reveal about their social relationships and identities.
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course explores sex and gender as concepts that are socially and culturally constructed within and across cultures. Emphasizing critical and thoughtful reading, analysis, and discussion, the course addresses how shared understandings of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion and class affect people’s experiences of their social worlds.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course takes an anthropological approach to exploring music as an aspect of culture in both present and ancient societies. It focuses on how music is used to negotiate individual and collective identities in multiple world contexts using methods and issues relating to the ethnographic study of music behaviours.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2276F/G.
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course explores anthropological approaches to the study of crisis, disaster, and emergency. We will look at theoretical frameworks for understanding disaster and apply them to case studies of disasters ranging from fires and hurricane to earthquakes and humanitarian emergencies.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2277F/G.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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What are these categories of race, ethnicity and identity? These are hotly contested categories that are constantly shifting. This course will introduce students to anthropological conceptions of race and ethnicity and how these have shaped human identity over the 19th through 21st centuries.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2278F/G.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course uses ethnographic and historical cases to explore how ethical and moral values are embedded in social and cultural contexts and how social encounters may bring alternative or competing ethical registers into contact and conflict. Topics include virtue ethics, caregiving, reciprocity, volunteerism, charity, and global humanitarianism.
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course explores the economic lives of people across a variety of cultures. Topics will include social and political economy, economics and morality, gifts and exchange, labour and production, commodities and consumption, fair trade, and concepts of land and mortgage.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An introduction to anthropological perspectives on international development. This course addresses the impacts of market institutions, international aid, wage labour, urbanization, and various industries on societies around the world, drawing attention to the distinctive perspectives and interests of people targeted by development initiatives.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course will examine human migration from an anthropological perspective that includes a brief historical overview of human mobility, case studies from around the world, and theoretical attempts to explain and predict human migration.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2282F/G.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines populations forcibly uprooted from their original habitats due to armed conflict, famine, environmental disasters and 'development.' It emphasizes the need to examine displacement in specific contexts. Topics include: the impact of displacement on society and culture, 'home' and exile, humanitarian aid, resistance and resilience in host-countries.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2283F/G.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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A comparative study of the role of new information and communications technologies in the developing world. Topics include: connectivity and access; adoptions and appropriations; communications in development; mobile
phones and transnational migration; youth, gender and mobile technologies; the internet and popular politics; new technologies and expanded worlds.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course focuses on the anthropological study of clothing and fashion. It will critically examine the meaning of clothing and the role it plays in the formation of identities and the negotiation of power inequalities. It will further explore the social and political-economic processes that influence clothing production and consumption.
Antirequisite(s): Anthropology 2293F/G taken in 2015-2016.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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A survey of the past and present of computation and its interconnections with society and culture. Topics will include: the origins of computation and industrialism, the intersections of race/class/gender and computers, militarism and computation, computational infrastructure, and emerging debates around artificial intelligence, blockchain, and more.
Extra Information: Blended, 2 in-person lecture hours and 1 asynchronous online.
Course Weight: 0.50
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The world is changing in more ways than one. Global temperatures are rising, and social and political upheavals are reshaping the way we respond to environmental change. This course examines the role of science in these processes and how scientists and scientific institutions are adapting to a changing world.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An exploration of the social and cultural basis of health, disability, disease, and healing. We will examine patterns of illness and epidemics, social and cultural aspects of risk, the use of ritual in healing, and the politics of health, among other issues, from an ethnographic and historical perspective.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2290F/G.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course will explore the methodology of fieldwork in Sociocultural Anthropology. The emphasis will be less on reading about anthropology and more on actually doing what anthropologists do. Assignments will focus on participant observation and include talking with people, observing what they are doing and taking part in their activities.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2223F/G.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in Year 3 or 4 in any Anthropology module.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Students elicit and record linguistic data from a native speaker of a designated language and then study its phonological and lexical-grammatical systems. Selected aspects of the language are analyzed in terms of current problems in linguistic theory.
Prerequisite(s): Linguistics 2247A/B and Linguistics 2248A/B.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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A survey of practical applications of linguistic theory. Topics may include discussion of the relevance of linguistic research to language teaching and learning, communication disorders, language policy development and language revitalization, translation and intercultural communication, media, law, business, communication technologies, and social justice.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 2243F/G.
Prerequisite(s): Enrolment in third or fourth year, and Linguistics 2247A/B or Linguistics 2248A/B.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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The formation of collective identities is a process entwined with the production of historical narratives, especially in struggles against states, or to annex and dominate territories, or to secede from existing states. Based on case studies, the topics covered include: history/memory/identity-making, repression/resistance, displacement, nation-states and citizenship, sovereignty and territory.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third year or above.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course provides a practical introduction to field methods and preliminary laboratory techniques of archaeology. Practical training will be given at a field camp to be held at an archaeological site near London.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2229F/G. Application Required.
Extra Information: Course details and application available on Anthropology Department website.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines contemporary theoretical frameworks in
archaeology and explores how they shape and are shaped by current issues, the development of new methods, and archaeological practice around the globe.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2229F/G.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An overview of issues concerning hunter-gatherers from both an archaeological and ethnographic perspective. Topics include: the usefulness of the "hunter-gatherer" category, debates about the original state of human nature, and the causes of subsistence and societal variability including the shift to agriculture and the development of non-egalitarian societies.
Prerequisite(s): Any Arts and Humanities or Social Science 0.5 or 1.0 Essay course.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An introduction to the range of information about past human groups gleaned from the animal remains. Lectures will cover various topics in zooarchaeological theory and practice. Labs will teach the basics of skeletal identification for fish, birds and mammals, and will provide experience in the identification of fragmentary archaeological remains.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2229F/G.
Extra Information: 3 lecture/lab hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An introduction to current theoretical and methodological issues in bioarchaeology. Use of ancient human, animal, and plant tissues to reconstruct relationships among biology, culture and environment in international contexts is emphasized. Topics include: diet, demography, disease, identity, mobility, landscape, childhood, gender, ideology, political economy, violence, work, urbanism, and globalization.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2226A/B or Anthropology 2229F/G or instructor's permission.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines how archaeologists interpret the archaeological record dating from European colonial expansion to the emergence of modern capitalism. We will explore how the material and written record allow archaeologists to understand class, gender, racial and power differences, and consider the implications of these findings for contemporary archaeological practice.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2229F/G or Anthropology 2233F/G.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course provides students with a hands-on introduction to the identification, analysis and interpretation of a range of archaeological artifacts including lithics, ceramics and organics. Students will work with archaeological collections that are available for analysis.
Extra information: 3 hours.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2229F/G or permission of the instructor.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An advanced, hands-on introduction to the practice of field archaeology. Students will participate in intensive, problem-oriented, research excavations and field laboratory work on an undisturbed archaeological site. Students should be prepared to cover necessary travel and living expenses.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2229F/G, and registration in third year or above in any Anthropology module.
Extra Information: Limited enrollment. Four weeks. Permission by application to the Department of Anthropology. Students intending to apply to participate in this course are strongly encouraged to prepare by taking a relevant second year area course in archaeology.
Course Weight: 1.00
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This course offers students the opportunity to study current issues in anthropology through participation in extended fieldtrips and collaborative research projects during Intersession or summer terms. Students should be prepared to cover necessary travel and living expenses. Details typically will be available in the Department by October. Applications required.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in year 3 or 4 of any module and permission of the instructor.
Course Weight: 1.00
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This course offers students the opportunity to study current issues in environmental anthropology through participation in extended fieldtrips and collaborative research projects during Intersession or summer terms. Students should be prepared to cover necessary travel and living expenses. Applications required and available in on Anthropology website.
Prerequisite(s): Application required.
Extra Information: 4 weeks.
Course Weight: 1.00
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This course offers students the opportunity to study current issues in anthropology through participation in short-term fieldtrips and collaborative research projects during Intersession or summer terms. Students should be prepared to cover necessary travel and living expenses. Details typically will be available in the Department by October. Applications required.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in year 3 or 4 of any module and permission of the instructor.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course is about doing fieldwork to preserve an archaeological site using non-invasive and minimally intrusive methods. Fieldwork will focus on the archaeology of past archaeologies, the use of geophysical equipment, and address the contested heritage values such locales hold in society that we as archaeologists need to service.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third year or above.
Extra Information: Application available on Anthropology Department website. 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Individual reading and research of current interest in Anthropology. Students are responsible for making arrangements with an Anthropology faculty member. An application must be completed with approval from the Instructor and the Chair. Applications are available on the Anthropology website.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third year or above.
Extra Information: Application available on Anthropology Department website.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Special topics of current interest in Anthropology. List of special topics may be available in the Department.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third year or above.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Ethnographies are the written products of fieldwork in sociocultural anthropology. This course will introduce students to ethnography by guiding them through readings of classic and recent examples of the genre, concerning diverse topics, people and contexts. Special attention will be paid to the relationship between ethnographic research and writing.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third or fourth year in any Anthropology module.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines how various stages in the human lifecourse are understood and experienced differently in diverse socio-cultural contexts. It begins with a cross-cultural examination of theories of conception and then proceeds similarly through discussions of birth, infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, elderhood, death and the afterlife.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third year or above.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course will combine general principles of vertebrate paleontology and evolutionary biology to examine the fossil evidence for primate and human evolution. Important events, such as primate and hominid origins will be investigated in detail, emphasizing the cross-disciplinary nature of this field of study.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2226A/B.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course provides an overview of the fossil evidence for human evolution as a background for the critical examination of controversies in the field. Areas to be explored include human taxonomy, the evolution of human behaviour and the origin of modern humans.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2226A/B.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An exploration of the role that skeletal material plays in providing anthropological information. Emphasis will be placed on the analytical techniques used in osteology and odontology for: measuring biological adaptability in archaeological populations; creating individual biographies; the reconstruction of cultural activities.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2226A/B.
Extra Information: 1 lecture hour, 2 laboratory hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course uses approaches from sociolinguistics and historical linguistics to explore topics related to variation across and within languages and linguistic changes over time. Topics covered may include: sound change, morphological change, syntactic change, linguistic reconstruction, variations according to class, gender, age, ethnicity, communities of practice, and place.
Prerequisite(s): Linguistics 2247A/B and registration in third or fourth year of any Linguistics or Anthropology module.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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The role of bioanthropology in the genesis of the emerging field of evolutionary medicine is explored. We examine the natural history of the diseases that affect modern western societies as reconstructed from our ancestral remains and historical texts, and the implications of disease history for understanding causes of modern diseases.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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An examination of cultural attitudes to diet and subsistence and their effects on human biology in both ancient and modern contexts. Areas to be explored include: subsistence strategies and modelling; food ideology and metaphor; processing and preparation; the effects of diet on growth and development; diet related diseases.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2222F/G and Anthropology 2226A/B and registration in year 3 or 4 in any module.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course offers students the opportunity to study current issues in language revitalization through participation in collaborative research projects on site with a community partner. Projects will vary depending on the needs of the community and the skillset brought by the students.
Antirequisite(s): Indigenous Studies 3306A/B.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in year 3 or 4 of any module and by application available on the Anthropology Department Website.
Extra Information: lecture/fieldwork, 3 hours.
Recommended for students in Anthropology, Indigenous Studies or Linguistics.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course explores where anthropology came from, what influenced its early questions, and how those questions evolved over time, through an examination of some classic anthropological work on society and culture.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third or fourth year in any Anthropology module.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines the various principles through which societies are organized, by examining the construction of social formations and social identities over time in contexts of differential power.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 3350F.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course will provide students with a foundation to think critically about occupying health and disability and to use an anthropological lens to provide students with skills to critically evaluate health- occupation- and disability-related experiences both locally and globally.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third or fourth year in any Anthropology module or Disability Studies module.
Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 1 hour online.
Course Weight: 0.50
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As one of the most popular monsters in film, zombies speak to us about our own desires and fears. This course locates the contemporary figure of the zombie in cultural and historical perspective, with specific focus on the zombie in Haitian and American cultures.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third year or above.
Extra Information: 3 hours per week.
Course Weight: 0.50
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In this course we will use anthropology as a lens to analyze, evaluate and interpret embodiment. Topics may include: sex, gender, and sexuality; pregnancy; function, performance, and athleticism; race; disability; obesity vs. fat pride; body modification (tattoos, adornment, surgery, assistive devices); body-mind; surveillance and management of bodies in life and death.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third year or above.
Extra Information: 2 hours in class and 1 hour asynchronous online.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course focuses on the many ways in which anthropologists, Indigenous communities and artists have helped create a picture of northern landscapes and peoples and how in turn those pictures shape our (dis)engagement with critical issues facing the contemporary arctic.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third or fourth year in any program.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Students registered in this course will receive credit for participating in an organized research project, experiential learning program, or field course that has been pre-approved by the department. Students must seek approval from the department before committing to any such project, program, or course.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in any Anthropology Module.
Extra Information: Students who complete the requirements of this research practicum will receive a “Pass” and not a numerical grade.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Anthropologists are trained with a unique set of knowledge and research skills that can be applied to urgent issues facing people and communities around the world. This course will examine the ethics, theories, and methods of applied anthropology and the range of topics and issues that anthropologists can address.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course addresses anthropological approaches to race and ethnicity in historical and contemporary literatures from 19th-21st centuries, studying experiences of racialized groups such as African Diaspora, Uyghur, Latinx, and Indigenous peoples. We will look at anthropology's troubled legacy and the voices of emerging scholars who are forging new approaches.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2278F/G or permission of the instructor.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Humans have been indirectly and directly biohacking for millennia. This course considers the evidence for human ‘self-engineering’ throughout human evolution, recent human history, and today, focusing on broad comparative perspectives on cultural influences on human anatomy, physiology, genetics, and the ethics and social context of conscious human self-modification.
Prerequisite(s): Completion of first year, including at least 0.5 courses in Social Science, Science or Health Sciences. Recommended but not required: Anthropology 2226A/B, 2237A/B or 2240A/B.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course will explore contemporary and historical socio-cultural anthropological research about intersectional identities in Brazil. We will look at intersections of gender, race, class, sexuality, disability among other identities. This course has a classroom component as well as the expectation of participation in an international faculty-led trip to Brazil.
Prerequisite(s): 1.0 credit in Anthropology, or by permission of instructor.
Extra Information: Blended. 2 lecture hours in-person, 1 hour asynchronous online.
Course Weight: 0.50
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In this course, we will examine Black religious experiences in the Black Diaspora. Through discussion of ethnographic texts and anthropological concepts, we will investigate the complex history and experiences of Black religious expressions. Additionally, the class will consider the interplay among religion, race, gender, and sexuality within Black communities.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Advanced special topics in refugee and migrant studies.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third year or above.
Extra Information: 2 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third or fourth year in any program.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third or fourth year in any program.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third or fourth year in any program.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third or fourth year in any program.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in third or fourth year in any program.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course explores current anthropological debates, trends in anthropological practice, and contemporary theoretical frameworks that inform the ways in which anthropology is applied within and outside of universities.
Antirequisite(s): The former Anthropology 4400E.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 3350F, and registration in Year 4 in any Anthropology module.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course explores digitizing archaeology and interacting with the past digitally. The intent is to understand the implications for practice, and for the digital heritage arising from a digital archaeology. Digital novices and experienced users will easily manage the expectations for this course, including hands-on experiences using digital equipment.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in fourth year in Anthropology, and permission of the instructor determined by application.
Extra Information: 3 hours per week.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course will explore disease and diet in past human populations. A range of topics within paleopathology, the study of ancient disease, and paleodiet, the study of ancient diet, will be investigated to learn what can and cannot be discerned about human health in the past.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in fourth year in Anthropology, and permission of the instructor. Completion of Anthropology 3338F/G is recommended.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Through an anthropological approach to the study of ethics and morality, the course explores how value and meaning are socially, culturally, and historically produced. It covers a range of ethnographic case studies that explore how ethical and moral values operate in various contexts, from everyday talk to international humanitarian intervention.
Prerequisite(s): Fourth-year in an Anthropology module and by application (see Department website).
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines the theory and methods of virtual anthropology. Students will conduct anthropological research in virtual contexts and explore similarities and differences between virtual and traditional ethnography. To align with the practice of the field, this course will be held online, and students will use multiple virtual platforms.
Prerequisite(s): Enrolment in fourth year and by application available on the Anthropology Department website.
Extra Information: Online.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course examines linkages between linguistic practices and relations of power, drawing primarily on tools and methodologies of Linguistic Anthropology and Discourse Analysis. Topics such as racism, disability, migration will be addressed.
Prerequisite(s): Enrolment in fourth year and by application available on the Anthropology Department website.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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In this course, we will read a variety of ethnographies to understand how language is employed. The goal will be to see: 1) how language is used effectively in ethnographies; 2) what role language-based data has; and 3) how research about language is presented.
Prerequisite(s): Enrolment in fourth year and by application available on the Anthropology Department website.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Material culture encompasses the relationships between people and their material world (e.g., objects, landscapes, written records, architecture). This course offers a hands-on approach to the archaeological theorization, identification, recordation, and analysis of material culture of the 19th and 20th centuries. Students will work with real collections to complete term projects.
Prerequisite(s): Anthropology 2229F/G and registration in third or fourth year in any Anthropology module, or permission of the instructor.
Extra Information: 3 hours (1 lecture hour, 2 laboratory hours).
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course explores the interaction between habitual activity and energetics throughout human evolution, prehistory, and the recent past. Particular focus will be placed on the energetic biology of species, and how it has changed throughout human evolution in relation to habitual activity and changing resources use.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in fourth year in Anthropology and permission of the instructor.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Anthropology 2226A/B and Anthropology 3336F/G are recommended prior to registration.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course explores how analytical techniques are applied in archaeology and bioanthropology. The focus is not on any specific analytical technique per se. Rather, the coursefocuses on the theoretical context and paradigm within which techniques are applied and results interpreted and the broad anthropological questions that they can address.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in fourth year in Anthropology and permission of the instructor.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Completion of Anthropology 3308F/G and/or Anthropology 3311F/G is recommended prior to registration.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course takes a cross-cultural and deep temporal perspective on how different societies have dealt with death. Mortuary archaeology draws on different threads in Anthropology, including ethnography, bioarchaeology, and archaeological theory. It also reaches beyond Anthropology to take an interdisciplinary perspective on how societies deal with death.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in fourth year in Anthropology, and permission of the instructor determined by application. A minimum grade average of 80% in 2200-level and higher Anthropology courses is recommended.
Extra Information: 3 hours per week.
Course Weight: 0.50
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This course will examine the principles and concerns that are integral to the practice of applied archaeology in North America and the role of applied archaeology in heritage management. The course will review legislation and professional practices that govern applied archaeologists who undertake Cultural Resource Management (CRM).
Prerequisite(s): Registration in fourth year in Anthropology. Application Required.
Extra Information: 3 hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Individual reading and research of current interest in Anthropology. Students are responsible for making arrangements with an Anthropology faculty member. An application must be completed with approval from the Instructor and the Chair. Applications are available on the Anthropology website.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in fourth year in any program with approval from the Instructor and the Department Chair.
Extra Information: Hours to be arranged with Instructor.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Special topics of current interest in Anthropology. List of special topics may be available in the Department.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in fourth year in any program.
Extra Information: 3 lecture/seminar hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Students will be integrated into a faculty research project, gaining hands-on experience in research through sustained interaction with a faculty supervisor. The instructor and the student will apply to the Department Chair detailing the research activities that the student will undertake; approval from Department Chair required.
Prerequisite(s): Registration in fourth year in any Anthropology module, with a minimum average of 80% in courses at the 2000-level and above, or instructor permission.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Special topics of current interest in Anthropology. List of special topics may be available in the Department.
Prerequisite(s): Application required.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Special topics of current interest in Anthropology. List of special topics may be available in the Department.
Prerequisite(s): Application required.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Special topics of current interest in Anthropology. List of special topics may be available in the Department.
Prerequisite(s): Application required.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Special topics of current interest in Anthropology. List of special topics may be available in the Department.
Prerequisite(s): Application required.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
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Special topics of current interest in Anthropology. List of special topics may be available in the Department.
Prerequisite(s): Application required.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.
Course Weight: 0.50
Return to top
Special topics of current interest in Anthropology. List of special topics may be available in the Department.
Prerequisite(s): Application required.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours.