Anthropology
Department of Anthropology
Chairperson: Michael P. Muehlenbein
Graduate Program Director: Samuel Urlacher
The Department of Anthropology offers study for the Doctor of Philosophy with a concentration in Health. The program trains students in quantitative and qualitative methods, including electives in statistics, communication, management, and health. Understanding human health and well-being, utilizing different perspectives and tools offered through multidisciplinary training in Anthropology, is of immediate importance for our species. The Department aims to provide extensive field- and lab-based research opportunities to qualify students for a broad job market. Required components, in addition to the dissertation, include pedagogical training, participation in an internship with a local organization, and multiple publications and presentations prior to graduation.
Anthropology (ANT)
ANT 4302 Archaeological Theory (3)
Pre-requisite(s): Upper-level standing or consent of instructor
Use of archaeological data in reconstruction of past human cultural systems, with an emphasis on the role of archaeological theory in the process of interpretation.
ANT 4305 Anthropological Theory (3)
Pre-requisite(s): Upper-level standing or consent of instructor
Theoretical approaches to modern-day anthropology, with emphasis on political economy, Marxism, hermeneutics, ecology, and feminism.
ANT 4310 Societies and Cultures of East Asia (3)
Cross-listed as AST 4310
Cultural traits and social structures of China, Korea, and Japan in the context of their development from the traditional to the modern. Special attention on Japanese society in comparison with American society.
ANT 4312 Societies and Cultures of Africa (3)
Current social issues and policies in the light of historical and cultural foundations of selected African countries.
ANT 4320 Culture, Personality and Identity (3)
Cross-listed as SOC 4320
Pre-requisite(s): Upper-level standing or consent of instructor
A thorough investigation of the relationship between the individual and culture/society, with emphasis on the "culture and personality" school of contemporary humanistic social science.
ANT 4321 Climate Anthropology (3)
Cross-listed as ENV 4322
Pre-requisite(s): Upper-level standing or consent of instructor
An introduction to the causes and effects of climate change as it relates to people and power, ethics and morals, environmental costs and justice, and cultural and spiritual survival.
ANT 4325 Medical Anthropology (3)
Biological and sociocultural aspects of human health, disease, development, aging, and health care. Especially emphasized are the developmental, holistic, and cross-cultural perspectives on disease and the life cycle.
ANT 4327 Human Catastrophe and Cultural Response (3)
Cross-listed as ENV 4327
Impact of major catastrophes on human society with emphasis on coping strategies and the utility of disaster theory to help in the recovery process. Issues include disaster, toxic disaster, famine, epidemic, war and natural oppression.
ANT 4330 Epidemiology (3)
Pre-requisite(s): Some facility with quantitative methods, preferably with elementary knowledge of statistics
Epidemiological concepts and skills pertinent to the understanding of diseases. Assessment of cultural, ecological, environmental, occupational, and behavioral factors.
ANT 4332 Global Health Disparities (3)
Pre-requisite(s): Upper-level standing or consent of instructor
Principles of modern medical, biological, and psychological theory are applied to understand how economic and social inequities affect child development and health.
ANT 4334 Child and Family Health in Global Perspective (3)
Pre-requisite(s): Upper level standing or instructor consent
Principles of modern medical practice and evolutionary biology are used to understand family relationships and how/why they affect child development and health in global context.
ANT 4335 The Human Fossil Record (3)
Pre-requisite(s): Upper-level standing or consent of instructor
Seminar on the evolutionary history of humans. Emphasis on fossil evidence and primary texts.
ANT 4340 Environmental Archaeology (3)
Pre-requisite(s): Upper-level standing or consent of instructor
Distributional patterns of archaeological sites within specific environments. Archaeological/environmental field work in Texas, with respect to recent conservation laws protecting nonrenewable archaeological resources.
ANT 4341 Archaeology of the Mediterranean (3)
Pre-requisite(s): Upper-level standing
Environmental and cultural factors that led to the rise and fall of civilizations in the Mediterranean region.
ANT 4344 African Archaeology (3)
Pre-requisite(s): Upper-level standing
A survey of the African archaeological record, from emergence of stone tool technology 2.6 million years ago to the rise of complex civilizations and the African Diaspora.
ANT 4351 Futuristics (3)
Cross-listed as ENV 4351
Pre-requisite(s): Upper-level standing or consent of instructor
Biological and cultural forces that will likely shape humankind's future. Emphasis on trends in demography, globalization, science, and technology.
ANT 4353 Archaeology of North America (3)
Cross-listed as ARC 4353
An archaeological survey of human societies in the United States and Canada from their earliest appearance in the New World to the arrival of Europeans. One-third of the course will focus on historical archaeology.
ANT 4355 Forensic Anthropology (3)
Cross-listed as FORS 4355
Forensic anthropological techniques used in civil and criminal court cases, including analysis of skeletal material for sex, age, stature, and biological affinity.
ANT 4360 Anthropology of Religion (3)
Pre-requisite(s): Upper-level standing or consent of instructor
Myth, ritual and religion in social and cultural anthropology. Emphasis on structural and functional analysis, including critiques of pertinent classical and contemporary works.
ANT 4361 Ethnographic and Analytical Methods in Ethnomusicology (3)
Cross-listed as MUS 4360
See MUS 4360 for course information.
ANT 4362 Applied Anthropology (3)
Cross-listed as ENV 4362
Pre-requisite(s): Upper level standing or consent of instructor
An introduction to applied anthropology where major research components are identified and specific fields such as medical, nutritional, environmental anthropology, and Third World development are discussed.
ANT 4365 Primate Behavior (3)
Pre-requisite(s): Upper-level standing or consent of instructor
The complex social behavior of primates. Includes field trips. Graduate students produce a comprehensive research paper.
ANT 4369 Seminar in Anthropology (3)
Cross-listed as ENV 4369
Pre-requisite(s): Consent of instructor
Debate of current theoretical issues that reflect the continually changing nature of the discipline. Students will address all sides of a currently debated issue, drawing upon their studies in anthropology and related fields. Faculty participation.
ANT 4371 Evolutionary Medicine (3)
Pre-requisite(s): Upper level standing or instructor consent
Application of evolutionary theory to medicine using insights from evolutionary theory (biology) and human evolutionary ecology (biological and cultural anthropology) to inform our understandings of human health, development, and disease.
ANT 4372 Sex, Hormones, and Behavior: Human Reproductive Ecology (3)
Pre-requisite(s): Upper level standing or instructor consent
Recent developments in human reproductive biology, human reproductive ecology, and fertility analysis. The major features of the human reproductive process are considered using a combination of demographic, physiological and evolutionary approaches.
ANT 4373 One Health: Connecting Global Health and Conservation Medicine (3)
Pre-requisite(s): Upper level standing or consent of instructor
Analysis of the collaborative efforts among physicians, public health professionals, veterinarians, and social scientists to understand infectious disease exchange at the interface of human, wildlife, and livestock populations, and the varying ecological and cultural contexts in which these disease spillovers take place.
ANT 4416 Human Evolutionary Anatomy (4)
Cross-listed as BIO 4415
Pre-requisite(s): Upper-level standing or consent of instructor
Survey of regional and systemic human anatomy viewed from a comparative evolutionary perspective. Non-human primate and non-primate vertebrates will be used to illustrate the unique characteristics of human anatomical structures that have been honed by natural selection throughout our evolutionary history.
ANT 4670 Field School in Archaeology (6)
Pre-requisite(s): Consent of instructor
Field training in archaeological excavation, survey, artifact processing, and analysis of material culture.
ANT 4680 Field School in Cultural Anthropology (6)
Cross-listed as ENV 4680
Pre-requisite(s): Consent of instructor
Residence for five to six weeks in a selected area to observe and analyze social, economic, and environmental systems.
ANT 4690 Field School in Biological Anthropology (6)
Pre-requisite(s): Consent of instructor
Training in research techniques to gain an understanding of the methodology and its application in field research in various topics related to biological anthropology.
ANT 4V15 Research Methods in Cultural Anthropology (3-6)
Pre-requisite(s): Consent of instructor
Lecture and field experience in the methods and techniques of social and cultural anthropology. May be repeated for a total of six semester hours with different topics.
ANT 4V16 Archaeological Research (3-6)
Cross-listed as ARC 4V16
Pre-requisite(s): Consent of instructor
Independent library and lab research focused on a current topic in archaeology. May be repeated for a total of six semester hours with different topics.
ANT 4V70 Special Topics in Anthropology (1-6)
Pre-requisite(s): Consent of instructor
A reading-research project in selected areas of ethnology, archaeology, or physical anthropology. May be repeated for credit up to a total of six semester hours, provided topic is different.
ANT 5305 Multicultural Societies (3)
Pre-requisite(s): Consent of instructor
Multicultural societies will be examined with respect to cultural histories as well as modern problems. Special attention will be given to the cultural complexity of the continental United States.
ANT 5310 Advanced World Food Problems (3)
Cross-listed as ENV 5311
This course focuses on chronic deficiencies of certain key ingredients in the diet, their causal factors, the impacts these deficiencies have, and solutions to these problems in the contemporary world. The course explores the consequences of world hunger with particular attention to food and nutritional security as it influences health status, ability to work, education outcomes, economic security, and social connectedness.
ANT 5311 Descriptive and Exploratory Methods in Anthropology (3)
Pre-requisite(s): Consent of the instructor
Modern approaches to descriptive, exploratory, and formative anthropological research, with foundational concepts underlying research design as well as core methodologies. Students develop a domestic research project to collect primary data and gain experience in ethnographic methods, including participant observation, mapping, interviewing, survey design, data management and analysis (indexing, coding, transcribing, and related methods).
ANT 5312 Laboratory Methods in Anthropological Reserach (3)
Pre-requisite(s): Consent of the instructor
Experience conducting actual research in human evolutionary biology. Students collect data on living humans, perform laboratory analyses, statistical analyses, and manuscript preparation and presentation. Students gain experience with scientific methodology, hypothesis generation and study design, human subjects committees, biosafety and bioethics, biological sample collection, biomarker assays, survey design, and statistical analyses.
ANT 5313 Professional Skills and Grant Writing (3)
Pre-requisite(s): Consent of the instructor
Students learn how granting at the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health works, identify research and publication biases, recognize ethical issues in research, distinguish good science from bad attempts at it, identify potential granting opportunities, develop general writing and oral presentation skills, and develop peer reviewing skills.
ANT 5314 Advanced Human Biological Variation (3)
This course examines human biological variation, with a focus on human genetic and phenotypic diversity, adaptation, and health disparities in contemporary global populations. The overall framework for understanding human variation is evolutionary and biocultural. It draws from various scientific disciplines, including anthropology, evolutionary biology, genetics, physiology, nutrition, psychology, and global health.
ANT 5315 Advanced Human Genetics: Evolution and Health (3)
This course covers advanced topics in human genetic and genomic research. We focus on the application of genetic principles to human populations with an emphasis on population history, human evolution, and genes underlying human health and disease. Students are introduced to population genetic statistics, human genomics from an evolutionary standpoint, and standard forms of genome-wide data analysis.
ANT 5321 Advanced Climate Anthropology (3)
Cross-listed as ENV 5331
The primary goals of this course are fourfold: 1) To introduce the student to concepts and principles regarding relationships between climate and human activities; 2) To identify and critically assess the impacts on humans of climate-related events and vice versa, of humans on climate; 3) To explore the consequences of climate change via a wide range of case studies over time and space; 4) To examine the future in terms of climate change projections, the law of evolutionary potential, and factors that influence human responses to climate change.
ANT 5325 Advanced Medical Anthropology (3)
Students are taught key concepts in Medical Anthropology to examine how health and wellbeing are socially and culturally constituted in contexts of cultural diversity. We bring key insights from anthropological cross-cultural comparisons to public health and medical practice.
ANT 5331 Advanced Global Health Ethics (3)
Pre-requisite(s): Consent of the instructor
Study of social theory that informs historical transformations in the ethics of global public health, including the history of research and practice in international and population health. Topics include equality and equity, access and competition, homogeneity and diversity, legitimacy and power, responsiveness and exploitation, and moral reasoning and justice, among others.
ANT 5334 Advanced Child and Family Health in Global Perspective (3)
Principles of modern medical practice and evolutionary biology are used to understand family relationships and how/why they affect child development and health in global context. We begin with a brief overview of major issues in global child health practice. We then examine these issues from the perspective of developmental biology, psychology, and evolutionary medicine.
ANT 5336 Advanced Global Health Policy (3)
Pre-requisite(s): Consent of the instructor
Critique of existing domestic and international policy goals that include efforts to improve global health. Special attention (via analyses of case-studies) is given to the ethical and legal principles pertaining to global health policies.
ANT 5V90 Special Problems in Anthropology (1-6)
Pre-requisite(s): Instructor consent
Advanced work in Anthropology on variable topics. Subject and hours of credit agreed upon by student and instructor prior to registration. May be taken more than once provided the content differs substantially from that of any prior offering of the course that the student has taken.
ANT 6V97 Research (1-12)
Pre-requisite(s): Only graduate students prior to candidacy may enroll, and only with consent of the Graduate Program Director
Supervised research for doctoral students developing a dissertation proposal and studying for the preliminary examination required for advancement to candidacy. A student may repeat this course for credit with a maximum of twelve total hours.
ANT 6V98 Internship (1-6)
Pre-requisite(s): Graduate Program Director approval required
Provides graduate students opportunity for internship work experience in research positions with consent of advisory committee.
ANT 6V99 Dissertation (1-12)
Pre-requisite(s): Admission to candidacy and approval from Graduate Program Director required
Research, data analysis, writing, and defense of an approved doctoral dissertation project. Student must have been admitted to candidacy before registering for dissertation hours.