Anthropology
Professor HAUTZINGER (Associate Chair), Associate Professors FISH (Chair), LEZA , INGRAM, Visiting Assistant Professor FELLARS
Anthropology offers an expansive outlook on human life through time and across space. The anthropology major prepares students for a variety of careers across numerous fields, including but far from limited to academia. Majors are exposed to all four subfields of American anthropology: 1) archaeology, which focuses on the material cultures and peoples of the past; 2) biological anthropology, which examines the evolution of human biology and behavior, stressing the influence of culture on evolution; 3) linguistic anthropology, which addresses both the formal complexity of linguistic systems and the role that language plays in the regulating and negotiating of social life; and 4) socio-cultural anthropology, which stresses contemporary peoples, combining ethnography and cross-cultural comparison to portray the variability of human value systems, practices, and organization.
Major Requirements
Students majoring in anthropology must complete a minimum of twelve (12) units of course work, including the following requirements:
Two required, discipline-wide courses:
An additional 10 units of course work in the department**, distributed in the following categories:
- A minimum of one course in each of the 4 subfields (archaeological, biological, cultural, and linguistic anthropology). Cross-listed courses taught by faculty from other departments cannot satisfy the subdiscipline distribution requirement. See the Requirements Met by Courses page.
- At least three anthropology courses at the 300-level (in addition to AN315. Note: all 300-level courses have prerequisites; 2-block courses count as one course, but two units in the major). AN400 Independent Research in Anthropology or AN450 Capstone Research in Anthropology cannot substitute for 300-level courses.
- At least two courses with the Department’s “Methods” designation. See the Requirements Met by Courses page.
- Students must achieve a grade of C- or higher (or “S” if the P Track) for credits to count towards the major.
All Seniors must submit a Senior Capstone Project.
Major requirements may be satisfied by no more than:
- two units of off-campus credit
- two units of AN400 Independent Research in Anthropology or AN450 Capstone Research in Anthropology
- two cross-listed units taught by non-departmental faculty (e.g. ethnomusicology, political ecology, ethnography, religion, Race, Ethnicity, and Migration Studies (RM), or SW studies, etc.). Crosslisted courses cannot satisfy the subdiscipline distribution requirement unless they are taught by departmental faculty.
Minor Requirements
A minor in anthropology will consist of a minimum of five units of course work, to include the following:
- Courses in (at least) two of the four major subdisciplines (biological, cultural, archaeological, and linguistic anthropology - see Requirements Met by Courses page) as described in the major requirements.
- At least one course at the 300 level.
- Independent research courses (AN400 and AN450) may not be counted toward the minimum five units of the minor.
- Minor requirements may be satisfied by no more than:
- one cross-listed course unit taught by non-departmental faculty (e.g. ethnomusicology, political ecology, ethnography, religion, RM or SW studies, etc.).**
- one unit of off-campus credit.
- Students must achieve a grade of C- or higher (or “S” if the P Track) for credits to count towards the minor.
** The Anthropology Department allows majors to earn up to two (2) credits, and minors one (1), from off-campus study programs to count towards the degree. We accept a broad array of (C), or Cognate, courses for a single credit, assuming the coursework undertaken while off-campus includes at least one course with an anthropological/cultural/societal dimension to it. A second course towards the major requires the proposed course be focused on disciplinary anthropology’s thought and content (A). Courses taken off-campus are taught at the 300-level or above will transfer back to the department only at the 200-level to prevent off-campus study from replacing advanced study on campus. Students should submit course approval requests via Summit before finalizing study abroad plans.
A—Anthropology Course. Serves for a 1st or 2nd course unit one of 12 major / 5 minor course units at the 200-level; does not fulfill subfield distribution.
C—Cognate course. Serves for 1st but not a second 2nd off-campus credit, 208 topics, may fulfill a subfield requirement.
Courses
Anthropology
What does it mean to be human? Course addresses this question at the center of anthropology using a holistic approach and drawing on multiple subfields of anthropology: archaeological, biological, cultural, and linguistic anthropology. Each version of the course is organized around a central theme which will be addressed with theory and literature from at least two anthropological fields. Course themes will vary but may include topics such as the body, colonialism, food, sex or violence. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures requirement. (Not offered 2025-26).
This course provides an introduction to the field of biological anthropology by investigating both the current scientific understanding of human evolution and the stories that scientists tell in order to communicate their ideas about human evolution. Using data from the fossil record, modern human biology, and our primate relatives, students will gain familiarity with the scientific evidence for human evolution. Students will also utilize narrative analysis to explore how scientists communicate stories about human evolution in “popular science” contexts. Students will examine how those scientific narratives become part of popular culture stories about evolution by examining their influence on evolutionary iconography and trends such as the “paleo-diet.” 1 unit Meets the Critical Perspectives: Scientific Investigation of the Natural World requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: CP requirement.
The study of human societies through the central concept of culture. Explores such topics as meaning, social organization, difference and inequality, adaptation, kinship and gender, religion, environment, technology and conflict. Presents anthropological themes including holism, comparison, dynamism and cultural relativism, as well as methodological approaches to studying human experience in naturally occurring contexts. 1 unit. May meet either the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures or Social Inequality requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: SHB requirement.
An introduction to linguistic anthropology. Examines the interconnectedness of language and culture from ethnographic and sociolinguistic perspectives. Comparative study of speaking in cultural context aimed at understanding the ways in which people use talk to cooperate, manipulate, structure events, and negotiate identities. Cross-cultural focus, with examples from such languages and language varieties as Japanese, Navajo, Apache, French, African- American English, and Chicano English. May meet either the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures or Social Inequality requirement. 1 unit. May meet either the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures or Social Inequality requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: CP requirement.
Introduction to American Sign Language. Practice in signing and comprehension in American Sign Language (Ameslan or ASL).
Introduction to American Sign Language. Practice in signing and comprehension in American Sign Language (Ameslan or ASL).
Examines the fossil and genetic evidence for human evolution. Using the fossil record of early primate evolution as a foundation, the emergence of early hominins and their descendants is investigated. The evolution of human adaptations and hypotheses regarding the selective pressures leading to these adaptations are explored. Meets the Critical Learning: SA requirement.
Beginning with the genetic base, this course provides an anthropological approach to understanding biological variation within and between human populations. Traits of known and unknown inheritance, adaptations to different environments, concept of race, variation in biological sex, and interactions of human biology and culture are emphasized. Some laboratory exercises. (Meets the requirement for Natural Science credit.) (Does not meet the divisional requirement in the Social Sciences or the outside unit requirement for students majoring in the Natural Sciences.) 1 unit. (Not offered 2025-26).
Explores “the body” with emphasis on theoretical biological and cultural anthropological approaches. Topics may include human adaptations, biocultural evolution, categorization and display of bodies; the body as a basis for metaphors, symbols, and images; individual collective (cultural, social, political) bodies; and embodied experience across the life course We interrogate assumptions of a universal human body, in particular through the study of gender, sexual, ethnic and racialized diversity, as related to both inequality and ethics. 1 unit. Meets the Critical Learning: SHB requirement. (Not offered 2025-26).
Provides a foundation for understanding and doing ethnographic, contextually based research. Students execute hands-on projects grounded in participant observation and such complements as interviewing, questionnaires and surveys, archival work and projective methodological techniques; final results vary from ethnographic texts or films to exhibits or applied recommendations. Addresses such ethnographic fundamentals as: intellectual history; disciplinary contexts; epistemological validity and reliability; ethics and Institutional Review Boards; using ethnography for cross-cultural comparison; qualitative data analysis and software. Students learn varied forms of ethnographic inquiry such as exploratory, experimental, critical, historical and action/applied. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: CP requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: SHB requirement.
An overview of the relationships between different groups of primates and their natural history provides a foundation for investigating current hypotheses regarding the evolution of primate behaviors. The influence of the environment on behaviors is explored and its application for modeling the behaviors of humans and our hominin ancestors will be discussed. Finally, conservation threats to primates and primate traits that reduce or promote survival in human-altered habitats will be examined. Meets the Critical Learning: SA requirement.
Courses taught occasionally by visiting or permanent faculty; topics will vary and may be thematically or geographically focused
Focuses on the language of racism across cultures, examining the nature of discourses that communicate and reproduce racist ideologies. A special focus is placed on racist discourse in the United States, New Zealand, and certain societies of Latin America. The course examines the structures and effects of a range of racist discourses, from the extreme discourses of 'white pride' organizations to the everyday language of covert racism. Meets the Critical Learning: SHB requirement. Meets the Equity and Power: EPUS requirement. (Not offered 2025-26).
Explores theory and application of contrasting paradigms (i.e. positivist, interpretivist) across the major subfields of anthropology. Emphasizes commonalities across the discipline in major theoretical currents (i.e. cultural ecology, functionalism, symbolic, historical materialism, postmodernism, feminism, and practice theory).
An introduction to the peoples and places of the ancient North American Southwest. In addition to close attention to the contributions and problems of archaeological practices, we learn from the words, voices, and places of Indigenous peoples of the region. The temporal focus is 500 to 1600 CE, a period of dramatic growth and change in the region. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Social Inequality requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: HP requirement. (Not offered 2025-26).
Archaeology is the scientific study of the ancient and recent human past through the material traces of past human activity. In this hands-on introduction to archaeology, students learn some archaeological and anthropological methods used to reconstruct, document, and interpret aspects of the human past. Meets the Critical Learning: HP requirement.
Special topics in ethnomusicology, approached through emphasis on a particular musical area, theoretical issue, genre or repertory, compositional technique, or instrument. The course is devoted to non-western musical cultures.
Historical archaeology investigates past peoples using artifacts, documents, and the built landscape. This project-focused course teaches methods used to reveal aspects of the lives of people underrepresented in written records of the past. Projects include site documentation, artifact analysis, and/or dendroarchaeology and focus on the U.S. Southwest, ca. 1850 to 1950 CE. Meets the Critical Learning: HP requirement.
This course investigates social and environmental collapse and sustainability in the past and future. Archaeological documentation of human-environmental interactions over centuries provides insights into conditions contributing to the collapse, sustainability, resilience, and vulnerability of socioecological systems. We investigate the outcomes of these interactions as a source of insights for the future. Meets the Critical Learning: HP requirement. (Not offered 2025-26).
Ebola, disaster relief, mental health, aging populations, and primary health care are key issues in a world where diseases cross borders rapidly, but health care resources may not. This course introduces students to the dynamic, complex field of global health. The course examines improvements in global health, growing inequalities, the legacy of colonial medicine, and social justice in health from the perspectives of medical anthropology and public health. We draw from cases across the globe, in wealthy and poor nations, nations with well-functioning health systems and those struggling to meet people’s need for basic health care services to explore the intersection of biological, social, and cultural factors that determine health and well-being. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures requirement. (Not offered 2025-26).
Compares the experiences of diverse groups of the African Diaspora across the Caribbean and Latin America. Topics include: the legacy of slavery and contemporary labor processes; conceptualizing the 'Africa' in Afro-Latinx and –Caribbean cultures; maroons and other communities of resistance; racialization, variable construction of racial categories, and racism; nation-building; gender and sexuality; restitutive measures (e.g. reparations, educational quotas); relevant regional religious practices (e.g. prominent black Catholic saints, Candomblé, Umbanda, Voudoun, Santeria, Rastafarianism,) May meet either the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures or Social Inequality requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: SHB requirement. Meets the Equity and Power: EPG requirement. (Not offered 2025-26).
Explores varied gendered and sexual dynamics across selected settings in South and Central Americas, as well as the Caribbean. Social movements, division of labor, non-normative genders and sexualities, power struggles and violence are among areas examined from feminist, queer, ethnographic and comparative perspectives. Emphasis on gender’s intersections with ethnic, national, linguistic, class and geographical diversity demands students’ strong grasp of empirical information about the region. May meet either the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures or Social Inequality requirement. (Not offered 2025-26).
Emphasizing variability in the ways gender shapes social interaction and organization. Grounded in feminist ethnography on sexes, sexualities and gendering across biological, social and ideological fields. Includes attention to gender systems where 'third' (or more) genders emerge beyond women-or-men, such as hijras in India, two-spirits in diverse Native American peoples, and travestis in Brazil. Anthropological and feminist theoretical frameworks are frequently complemented by community-based projects. May meet either the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures or Social Inequality requirement. (Not offered 2025-26).
This course will explore food concepts, analytical methods, and the food habits of different ethnic groups. The class will have a field trip to the San Luis Valley, and to Northern New Mexico to document the production of food among farmers, cattle ranchers and restaurateurs. (Limited to 12 students.) Meets the Critical Perspectives: Social Inequality requirement. (Not offered 2025-26).
Explore the ways new speakers of a language are socialized through the process of language acquisition to become culturally competent members of their communities. Examine how individuals are taught the knowledge, skills, and attitudes expected in their particular cultural and speech communities. Focus will be placed on the process of language socialization for children learning the languages of their native communities, but the course will also explore issues of language socialization for foreign language learners. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Social Inequality requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: SHB requirement.
Explores the structures and functions of languages throughout the world, seeking to uncover both shared and variable patterns across languages. Introduces the tools of modern linguistics for recording and analyzing sound systems, words, syntactic and semantic structures, and the communicative uses of language. Provides background for understanding contemporary issues relating to language. Meets the Critical Learning: FRL requirement.
Provides the fundamental building blocks to understanding the distinctive differences between the major Native Nations of the Southwest including language and culture, respective colonization and resistance experiences, identity and cultural vitality, gender and social roles, and expressive culture and representation. Readings may include ethnographic, ethno-historical, biographical, and linguistic works, as well as critiques of the study of Native peoples by Native scholars. Field Trip Possible. (Not offered 2025-26).
This course will introduce students to the anthropological and cross-disciplinary study of gender and language. It will explore new directions for gender and language studies through the critique of past approaches and the discussion of contemporary research and theory contributing to our understanding of language, society, and the sociocultural construction of gender identities. Gender is conceptualized in terms of sliding scales of sex, sexuality, and gender socialization, with an emphasis on language's role in gender performativity. Students will collect and analyze samples of gendered language use in a specific sociocultural community. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Social Inequality requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: SHB requirement.
Introduction to basic research methods and the theoretical development of research methodologies applied in the field of linguistic anthropology and related fields that explore language as a resource for sociocultural expression and change. In addition to learning basic interviewing, recording and participant observation techniques applied by linguistic anthropologists, students will be introduced to digital technologies for transcription and linguistic data analysis. Typical course themes include language in social movement, media in society, racialized language discrimination, language in identity performance, and language activism. Students carry out an ethnographic research project to gain experience with research techniques and technologies. (Not offered 2025-26).
What does it mean to be human in the Anthropocene – a time when we know human-caused climate change challenges lifeways and ecosystems globally? This course brings anthropological lenses to understand this epoch. We address such questions as how human pasts inform the present, how mitigation and adaptation guide resiliency, and how equitable social ecologies – of self, communities and systems, and interdependency beyond the human require holistic strategies. Different versions of the course stress cultural or archaeological perspectives, yet all involve community-based learning, whether grounded in field study at the Baca Campus, engaging UN climate negotiations, or convening dialogues on sustainability. 1 unit. Meets the Critical Learning: SHB requirement.
This lab-based course is a detailed study of the anatomy of the human skeleton as a dynamic, living system. Consideration is given to the growth, structure, and function of bones, and to bioarchaeological and forensic skills such as the determination of age, sex, stature, and pathology from skeletal remains. We will combine theory, its applications, and the limitation of osteological methods with laboratory analysis. The relevant techniques for the reconstruction of past populations and the assessment of human biological variation will be introduced. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Scientific Investigation of the Natural World lab or field requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: SA requirement. (Not offered 2025-26).
This lab and field-based course provides an overview of the methods used by biological anthropologists in studying the ecology and biology of living humans. Emphasis will be placed on anthropometry, human nutrition, and ethical considerations surrounding human biology research. Students will gain a historical perspective on the discipline through literature review and practical experience through laboratories and a research project Meets the Critical Perspectives: Scientific Investigation of the Natural World requirement. Meets the Writing in the Discipline requirement. (Not offered 2025-26).
This field and lab-based course exposes students to a range of methods for investigating the ecology, behavior, and biology of living primates. Techniques for assessing habitat quality and monitoring resource availability will be examined. Using a comparative approach, students will examine the anatomy of living primates in order to understand how physical adaptations influence behavior. Standard procedures for collecting and analyzing behavioral data on living primates will be explored. Inferences about behaviors of earliest humans made from our understanding of contemporary non-human primates. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Scientific Investigation of the Natural World requirement. Meets the Writing in the Discipline requirement.
Advanced study on themes in anthropology or between anthropology and other disciplines. Examples may involve politics, religion, cognition, folklore, materiality, environment or cultural ecology.
This course will introduce and allow students to critically explore settler colonialism as a distinct and pervasive form of contemporary colonialism which reproduces white supremacy and social inequalities. The course critically examines anthropology’s participation in colonial discourses that have dispossessed and oppressed indigenous peoples. It further explores settler colonial discourses that manifest in popular culture forms including horror and science fiction narratives. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: SHB requirement. Meets the Equity and Power: EPUS requirement. (Not offered 2025-26).
Explores cognitive anthropology, which is concerned with the relationship between language and mind, how cultural worlds are created and structured through language, and how individual languages shape the attitudes and behaviors of their speakers. We will consider both potential universals in human thought as expressed through language and the diversity of worldviews and behaviors between language communities. Meets the Critical Learning: SA requirement.
Students complete and present senior capstone projects, with the help of workshops, scaffolded submission deadlines, and peer review. A professional development component prepares students for graduation through structured reflection about their work in the major, and guiding them to generate individual goals and portfolio materials
A project-focused and advanced field research opportunity to document and interpret the past using archaeological methods. Research may include cultural resource survey, GIS mapping, artifact analysis and documentation, archaeological site recording, dendroarchaeology, and/or excavation. Meets the Critical Learning: SA requirement.
An interdisciplinary field-based course based on history, culture, and water issues. It will explore the cultural heritage and creativity of groups whose historical experience has been shaped by the Rio Grande basin from its origin in Colorado to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico. The course will engage a broad American and international public in the exploration of how the river basin and the people who live within it change, evolve, and develop together, and can affect each other. May meet either the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures or Social Inequality requirement. (Not offered 2025-26).
(Summer only 2025-26).
Anthropological approaches to religion and ritual emphasize lived experience, practice, related social, political and economic formations, along with expression, belief, and meaning-creation. Cases encompass both “traditional,” and complex societies, and more often religious pluralism shaped by migration and globalization. Themes include notions of the sacred, supernatural, and good or evil; religion as embodied; shamanic and spiritual healing; place and environment. Meets the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement.
An advanced research and methods course on reconstructing past climates through tree-rings and understanding anthropological and archaeological perspectives on climate-human behavior relationships. Students will sample living trees, measure ring-widths, use specialized software to create a climate reconstruction, and compare the reconstruction to a proximate human history. Meets the Critical Learning: SA requirement.
Synthesizes perspectives from biology and biological anthropology to understand why major health conditions evolved and persist within our species. Students develop a richer knowledge of evolutionary biology, organismal biology, and biological anthropology through exploration of major medical issues, and develop skills in reading, writing, and group communication. (Not offered 2025-26).
Life history theory examines how the “decisions” that individuals make at different life stages impact their survival and reproductive success. Information from studies of human evolution, modern human biology, human ecology, and primate behavior will be used to model the evolution of human life histories. Life history strategies involving sexual behaviors, reproductive biology, investment in offspring, childhood, and adolescence will be investigated in order to identify traits that are uniquely human and when these traits may have first appeared in the human lineage. Meets the Critical Learning: SHB requirement. Meets the Equity and Power: EPG requirement. Meets the Equity and Power: EPUS requirement. Meets the Writing in the Discipline requirement.
A comparative, holistic study of formal and informal politics in diverse societies. The course focuses on three major themes: examining diverse political systems with emphasis on the emergence of the state; the relationship between power, ideology, and symbolic systems; power and controlling processes, with special attention to dominance, hegemony and resistance. Emphasis on full-length ethnographies. May meet either the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures or Social Inequality requirement. (Not offered 2025-26).
Examines how people organize their material world to survive and to create meaningful systems of value and exchange. A variety of economic forms - small-scale societies with limited accumulation, gift economics, commodity-based capitalism, and “illicit” networks- are considered from holistic, comparative perspectives. The course concludes with an anthropological critique of colonialism, core-periphery relations, inequality, diverse forms of 'capital,' and globalization. May meet either the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures or Social Inequality requirement. (Not offered 2025-26).
Student research projects, either centered on a student’s own research question or in collaboration with ongoing faculty research, based on field, laboratory or library research. Projects must be approved at least one block in advance of the actual block of research.