Featured Courses

Featured Courses in the Department of Anthropology

ANT 160: Neandertals & Modern Human Origins

Who were Neandertals? When and where did they live? What were their lives like? Did they exchange genes and culture with the ancestors of present-day humans? This course deals with the most up to date answers to these and related questions, as well as how scientists go about trying to answer them.

ANT 124: Religion in Society and Culture

What is the relationship between religion, science and modernity? How did colonialism impact religious ideas and practices in the colonies and the metropole? How are the body and the senses significant for religious life? Can we analyze the relationship between religion and modern/postmodern cityscapes, ecology, and diasporas? What kinds of religious ideas inform utopian imaginations? This course addresses these questions with an emphasis on several world areas and cultures. It will focus on some classic essays in the anthropology of religion as well as ethnographic/historical studies of religion in culture and society. It engages with case-studies and films embracing Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam, and other traditions.

ANT 145: Performance, Embodiment, and Space in South Asia

The South Asia region is an energetic center of global transformation carrying with it the dreams and challenges of a fourth of humanity. It includes the incredible richness of regional cultures in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan, Maldives and their diasporas. This undergraduate course is an intensive introduction to the issues and processes that have shaped South Asia and the connections of this region with the world beyond its boundaries.