Applies the theory of natural selection to the study of human behavior in an ecological setting, with particular focus on the adaptive features and biological design of human behavior.

Evolutionary concepts applied to human body size and shape, diet, disease, group composition, and reproductive behavior.

Selected current issues and debates in the discipline.

Examines the theories and methods of environmental anthropology and its application to contemporary human-environmental problems including climate change, environmental degradation, and environmental injustice.

Theoretical foundations and basic tools used to conduct professional field studies in anthropology. Research design; moral and ethical dimensions of field work; designing and conducting informal, semi-structured and structured interviews (one-on-one and in groups); managing field notes, questionnaires, and data; computer data management; summary statistics and graphics; identifying and interpreting random variation; modeling and testing explanations.

(Also offered as HRTS 5327.) Draws on current social science research and legal scholarship to understand the effects of disinformation and hate speech on individual moral decision-making, as well as on wider politics and culture. Evaluates various private and public initiatives to regulate speech.

Theoretical debates and methodological approaches to the cognitive and evolutionary study of religious thought and behavior. Key topics include religious transmission, theological incorrectness, magical thinking, and psychosocial functions of religion and ritual.

Study of how the content of thought or knowledge, is created, organized, and distributed in human communities. Topics include cultural models of the mind, emotions, personality, and relationships.

An introduction to recent work in evolutionary psychology, exploring the variety of ways in which we can understand human cognition as a product of evolution.

Theories and problems in the analysis of non-western religious systems.

Examines various theoretical contributions to the anthropological study of ritual. Controversies and ambiguities surrounding the social and symbolic significance of the ritual act for both men's and women's experiences and participation are addressed.

Biological, cultural, technological, and behavioral evolution of Neanderthals as understood through the fields of genetics, physical anthropology, palaeolithic archaeology, human behavioral ecology, hunter-gatherer ethnography, palaeoclimatology, chronometric dating, and geology. Neanderthal-Modern Human interactions and the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition are also considered.

Overview of current theory and practice in medical anthropology.

Overview of various applications of anthropology to solve human problems both internationally and within the United States. Emphasis upon history of applied anthropology, ethical considerations, and specific roles of anthropologists in development.

A critical review of the development of archaeology, with particular emphasis on the theoretical innovations of the 1960s and 1970s.

Creation of archaeological sites by human behavior and geological forces. The characteristics of various formation processes and identification of them in the archaeological record.

Assessing global morbidity and mortality; global health governance; political economy of global health; health inequities; social determinants of health; syndemics; climate change and health; maternal and child health; nutrition; infectious diseases; and war, trauma, and complex emergencies.

Special topic readings or investigations according to the needs of each student.

With a change in content, may be repeated for credit.

Introduction to stable isotope theory, methodology, and applications.

The impact of past climate on human societies, from Mid-Pleistocene to late Holocene, discussed in light of modern climatology and paleoclimate reconstruction methods.

Hands-on survey of practical skills required for professional anthropology, including writing research plans, grant applications, manuscript preparation, teaching philosophies, professional behavior and ethics.

The earliest modern people in Africa: their way of life seen from the archaeological, fossil, and genetic evidence.

Interdisciplinary understanding of the tempo and mode of modern human dispersals across Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas.

Investigation of recent and prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies informed by human behavioral ecology, archaeology, and ethnoarchaeology.

Archaeological problem solving using zooarchaeological and taphonomic data; the evolutionary ecology of human economies; evaluation and quantification of zooarchaeological data; formation of faunal assemblages.

Method and theory of studying archaeological plant remains in the laboratory, including sampling, identification, and interpretation of data.

Survey of the dynamic relationship between plants and people using an inter-disciplinary approach. Readings draw from anthropology, archaeology, botany, ecology, history, and agricultural and environmental sciences.

(Also offered as LLAS 5800.) Exploration of how race and the human sciences emerged out of the theological, epistemological, and political upheavals that resulted in the Euromodern world.