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Anthropology Courses
Some courses may not be offered every semester.
ANTH 1210 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (3,0,0) ANTH 1210 Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (3,0,0)Credits: 3 credits Students will learn about Cultural Anthropology as the branch of Anthropology concerned with the holistic study of human societies and of how humans use culture to organize themselves, make sense of things, and meet their basic survival needs. Students will examine how anthropological approaches increase their understanding of global and local issues in diverse cultural contexts. Students will be challenged to engage multiple and coexisting ways of knowing and being on equal footing through culturally relative cross-cultural comparative analysis and method. Through increased intercultural awareness students will examine a range of topics including the effects of race and racism and colonialism, cultural diversity in expressions of gender and sexuality, social inequalities, religion and cosmology, economics and modes of exchange, and the organization of power through political systems and polities. |
ANTH 2140 Indigenous Peoples (3,0,0) ANTH 2140 Indigenous Peoples (3,0,0)Credits: 3 credits Students consider how the place most dominantly known as Canada came to be and their place in it. Taking an Indigenous and Settler Colonial Studies approach that recognizes all ways of knowing on equal footing, students will explore how colonialism operates as a project of cultural domination and how settler colonialism presents as a particular articulation of it. Topics may include: The Indian Act, the Reserve System, Residential Schools, Treaties and Land Claims, Forced Relocations, First Nations self-government and Indigenous self-determination and nationhood, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's Calls to Action and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and students' own role in decolonization and reconciliation in settler colonial Canada.
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ANTH 2150 Cultural Explorations (2,1,0) ANTH 2150 Cultural Explorations (2,1,0)Credits: 3 credits An advanced introduction to cultural anthropology, this course examines how anthropologists describe the societies they study, and the conclusions they draw. Case studies to be used may include books as well as ethnographic films depicting the cultural diversity of the modern world.
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ANTH 2250 Sex, Gender and Culture (2,1,0) ANTH 2250 Sex, Gender and Culture (2,1,0)Credits: 3 credits A cross cultural survey of the different ways in which a biological condition (sex) is transformed into a cultural status. A central issue concerns the question whether there are 'natural' male and female behaviours that are expressed regardless of local cultural influences.
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ANTH 2600 Minorities in the Modern World (2,1,0) ANTH 2600 Minorities in the Modern World (2,1,0)Credits: 3 credits An introduction to the anthropological study of minorities, with special reference to the present position of indigenous peoples around the world. Case studies from North America, Europe, Asia, Russia and Oceania illuminate the concepts of genocide, ethnocide, pluralism and multiculturalism.
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ANTH 3000 Current Issues in Cultural Anthropology (3,0,0) or (3,0,0)(3,0,0) ANTH 3000 Current Issues in Cultural Anthropology (3,0,0) or (3,0,0)(3,0,0)Credits: 6 credits The study of selected areas and communities drawn from around the world with an emphasis on problems of cross- cultural comparison and on theoretical issues of current importance in the discipline.
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ANTH 3030 The European Orient: Balkans, Russia and Eastern Europe (3,0,0) or (3,0,0)(3,0,0) ANTH 3030 The European Orient: Balkans, Russia and Eastern Europe (3,0,0) or (3,0,0)(3,0,0)Credits: 6 credits A specialized survey of the cultures shaping Central and Eastern Europe including Russia. Primary areas of concern are the interplay between peasant and national culture and between ethnic and political identity.
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ANTH 3270 Indigenous peoples Natural Resource Management (2,1,0) ANTH 3270 Indigenous peoples Natural Resource Management (2,1,0)Credits: 3 credits A review of historical and contemporary issues shaping Indigenous peoples' relationship to their lands and resources and the impact of governmental policies on this relationship. Topics will include the Indian Act, traditional indigenous views of resource management, treaties, and analysis of current policies on resource management and aboriginal life.
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ANTH 3280 Indigenous Peoples in Comparative Perspective (3,0,0) ANTH 3280 Indigenous Peoples in Comparative Perspective (3,0,0)Credits: 3 credits This course takes a cross-cultural comparative approach to the study of contemporary Indigenous Peoples. Indigenous Peoples constitute a diverse range of groups throughout the world. What they have in common is the shared experience of colonization. Recognizing the diversity of Indigenous Peoples throughout the world, this course will explore both those experiences shared between groups, and those unique to local contexts.
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ANTH 3390 ***Special Topics in Anthropology (2,1,0) ANTH 3390 ***Special Topics in Anthropology (2,1,0)Credits: 3 credits This is a variable content course intended to provide topics beyond those of regular departmental offerings. The course will be offered from time-to-time, and may make use of the specializations of visiting faculty.
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ANTH 4000 History of Anthropology (3,0,0) ANTH 4000 History of Anthropology (3,0,0)Credits: 3 credits The development of the major approaches in anthropology in their institutional contexts.
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ANTH 4010 Indigenous Peoples of North America (3,0,0) or (3,0,0)(3,0,0) ANTH 4010 Indigenous Peoples of North America (3,0,0) or (3,0,0)(3,0,0)Credits: 3 credits Indigenous cultures of the United States and Canada; linguistic and cultural relationships; the culture of reserves and the reserve system in both countries.
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ANTH 4030 Field School in East/Central Europe (3,0,0) ANTH 4030 Field School in East/Central Europe (3,0,0)Credits: 6 credits This course offers an introduction to the societies and cultures of East/Central Europe by way of a month-long field trip. The itinerary includes rural and urban locations in several countries that lend themselves to an ethnographic examination of the ethnic relations, religions, economies, and politics shaping the buffer zone between the European East and West.
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ANTH 4040 People and Cultures of the North American Arctic (2,1,0) ANTH 4040 People and Cultures of the North American Arctic (2,1,0)Credits: 3 credits This course introduces the North American sub-Arctic, Arctic, and High Arctic as discrete cultural regions. Surveying the historical, ecological and cultural diversity of the Arctic, this course reviews anthropological perspectives on the past and present lives and experiences of indigenous peoples who have made the high latitudes their home for millenia. This course documents patterns of social organisation among Inuit, Dene, and Metis with a secondary focus directed towards recent economic, political, and cultural trends in the region resulting from European contact, colonisation, and political devolution.
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ANTH 4050 Indian Reserve Communities (2,1,0) ANTH 4050 Indian Reserve Communities (2,1,0)Credits: 3 credits This course will present Canadian reserve communities as distinct societies. A survey of status Indian reserve communities across Canada, this course chronicles the origin of the numbered reserve system historically by introducing the Indian Act, Registered Indians, and the numbered treaty process. It surveys the variety of reserve communities nationally, as well as documenting present-day reserve conditions from the point of view of social scientists and Native writers alike.
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ANTH 4150 Religion and Society (3,0,0) ANTH 4150 Religion and Society (3,0,0)Credits: 3 credits Comparative study of religious beliefs and practices; relations between religious, social and political institutions; religion as a force for stability as well as change.
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ANTH 4330 Directed Studies (3,0,0) or (3,0,0)(3,0,0) ANTH 4330 Directed Studies (3,0,0) or (3,0,0)(3,0,0)Credits: 6 credits General reading and/or a research undertaking, with the agreement, and under the supervision, of a Department faculty member selected by the student. No more than 6 credits of Directed Studies may be taken for credit towards a degree.
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ANTH 4600 Cultural Ecology and Evolution (3,0,0) ANTH 4600 Cultural Ecology and Evolution (3,0,0)Credits: 3 credits Social organization in the context of the theoretical approaches of cultural evolution and cultural ecology with particular emphasis on primitive societies: kinship, political organization, warfare, economic organization, peasant societies, religious movements, underdevelopment, and social change.
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