Anthropology (APY)

Examines the romantic element in archaeology in the great sites of the world, such as Troy, Olduvai Gorge, Stonehenge, and so forth. Since the sites cannot be separated from their discoverers and excavators, we also consider the lives of the most famous and romantic archaeologists, including Schliemann, Leakey, and Kenyon.

This class is a general introduction to the field of anthropology, the study of humanity. It is designed to pique your interest in the broad diversity of human behavior and lifestyles across the world and throughout time. This course will take a look at our four major subfields - archaeology, linguistic anthropology, physical anthropology, and cultural anthropology - and include discussions on our "youngest" subfield, applied anthropology. The goal of this class is to understand the wide range of issues covered by the fields of anthropology, the ways in which these issues are studied by specialists in the field, and the practical effects of the questions covered by anthropological study. In order to survey such a wide range of issues, the class is structured in a standard lecture format, with small group exercises and class discussions.

Surveys important ideas about culture and society that have shaped cultural anthropology. Studies the principal institutions of culture - language, social organization, religion, economics, politics, artistic expression, etc. - in their traditional ethnographic context and as they change through cultural contact and modernization.

For centuries preceding modern times, our uniqueness as a species was taken as a sign of special creation; we were not seen to be a part of nature. But as knowledge of human evolution, our closeness to other primates, and our adaptations to specific environments emerged, we have taken our place in the animal kingdom. Here, we learn how those insights developed, and about current methods of understanding human origins and the natural forces that have shaped us.

Archaeology is the study of the human past through its material remains and is of primary importance in reconstructing past human life ways that exist outside the realm of written record. Bridging the gap between the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities, archaeologists integrate many types of evidence in order to shed light on the origins of our species. This course provides an overview of the methods, theories and models used by archaeologists to better understand past human societies, from the formulation of a research question, through the processes of survey and excavation, to the analysis of data, and the interpretation of the results. The many topics covered in the course include: excavation, interpretation, conservation, technology, cultural diffusion and evolution, and cultural heritage.

Provides an introduction to the mythology of the Greeks and Romans. In addition to considering the myths themselves, we study how they have been employed by ancient through contemporary cultures as reflected in areas ranging from religious and social practice to works of art and architecture. This course is the same as RSP 113 and CL 113 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

The one credit UB Seminar is focused on a big idea or challenging issue to engage students with questions of significance in a field of study and, ultimately, to connect their studies with issues of consequence in the wider world. Essential to the UB Curriculum, the Seminar helps transition to UB through an early connection to UB faculty and the undergraduate experience at a comprehensive, research university. This course is equivalent to any 198 offered in any subject. This course is a controlled enrollment (impacted) course. Students who have previously attempted the course and received a grade of F or R may not be able to repeat the course during the fall or spring semester.

The three credit UB Seminar is focused on a big idea or challenging issue to engage students with questions of significance in a field of study and, ultimately, to connect their studies with issues of consequence in the wider world. Essential to the UB Curriculum, the Seminar helps students with common learning outcomes focused on fundamental expectations for critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and oral communication, and learning at a university, all within topic focused subject matter. The Seminars provide students with an early connection to UB faculty and the undergraduate experience at a comprehensive, research university. This course is equivalent to any 199 offered in any subject. This course is a controlled enrollment (impacted) course. Students who have previously attempted the course and received a grade of F or R may not be able to repeat the course during the fall or spring semester.

This course explores musical cultures throughout the world with special attention given to social, political, and historical contexts of musical performance practices. Lectures will involve focused listening and discussions of an array of musical traditions as they relate to place, ethnic identity, politics, industry, conflict, and technology. No formal musical training is required though students will be expected to develop critical listening skills.

Reviews the growth of the unique possibilities of historic archaeology - a growth that suggests that this subdiscipline can provide an important perspective on disciplinary goals, as well as on the history of North American societies.

This is a topics course, and as such, represents a wide variety of potential offerings. Information about the current semester's topic(s) can be found here: http://anthropology.buffalo.edu/courses/undergraduate/

People in all societies experience illness, but their understandings of the causes of disease and approaches for restoring health differ greatly. This course examines the social and cultural dimensions of health, illness, and healing. Through a variety of case studies, we will learn about the ways medical anthropologists study explanations of disease, experiences of suffering, and the social organization of health care. Western medicine, also called biomedicine, will also be an object of our analysis. We will discuss how the delivery of biomedical health care involves particular understandings of the body and appropriate social relationships. Emphasis will also be placed on how the stories that individuals and institutions circulate about human agency in suffering shape individual convictions about how to care, and for whom to care. The course aims to teach students to think about health, disease, and medicine in national, cross-cultural and global terms.

Psychological anthropology explores the relationship between culture/society and psychological phenomena such as personality, emotion, cognition, and mental illness. Both anthropologists and psychologists have long recognized that there are complex associations between these phenomena, but identifying exactly how they are related has been a major challenge. This course surveys efforts to incorporate psychological perspectives into anthropology, starting with late 19th century psychoanalysis, examining the very influential work on culture and personality that shaped much of anthropology in the middle of the 20th century, and more recent research in cognitive anthropology.

Involves a cross-cultural and cross-national survey of human reproduction. Patterns of fertility regulation, pregnancy, birth, and early infant care.

The course explores the multiple relationships between anthropology and film. We will explore how anthropologists have used and debated film as a mode of ethnographic representation, that is, as a way of constructing and communicating knowledge about the world. We will also explore how the medium of film has helped to shape anthropology, specifically the debates on ethnographic representation. Key issues include, but are not limited to, the representation of human realities and the ethical dilemmas involved in filming real people, truth, authority, reflexivity, and spectatorship.

The course seeks to offer a deeper understanding of war as a contemporary social and political issue. Questions we will examine include whether war is intrinsic to human nature, what causes war, how war is conducted, how people in war-torn societies endure violence, and what the consequences of war are. The course will also explore debates about the so-called War on Terror and about recent attacks by ISIS and other militant groups.

Environmental anthropology examines how people interact with, respond to, and bring about changes in the environment. Thus, some of the questions this course engages with include: How is nature understood across different cultures? How can sociocultural analysis contribute to our understanding of climate change? How are inequality and environmental change related?

Examines human thinking as a cultural and social, as well as a psychological (or computational), phenomenon. Regards cognition as closely interconnected with cultural forms, social systems, and everyday activities. The course also addresses the very concept of 'cognition' as a cultural product whose social and historical origins require investigation.

This is a topics course, and as such, represents a wide variety of potential offerings. Information about the current semester's topic(s) can be found here: http://anthropology.buffalo.edu/courses/undergraduate/

This course takes a global perspective on human teaching and learning in a variety of cultural contexts. We explore ethnographic methods in educational research and anthropological approaches to education in its widest sense, both in and out of schools. Such forms of socialization as apprenticeship and initiation will be discussed alongside of the formal educational institutions of North American and European nations. This course will also address the educational issues facing immigrants and minority populations in contemporary societies. Readings and discussion will emphasize research and practice. We will work with various qualitative methods, including autoethnography, and will also explore depictions of teachers and students in both ethnographic and feature films. There are no prerequisites.

Explores the many religious experiences developed from the blending of Christian, African, and Indian cultures in the Caribbean. Although the principle focus is on Voudou and Santeria many less known religions of the region are also explored through a multidisciplinary perspective. This course is the same as AMS 325 and LLS 325 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Archaeology of the prehistoric Near and Middle East from the peopling of the region through the emergence of the first villages and the domestication of plants and animals to the emergence of city-states in the 3rd millennium BC.

Examines European prehistory from the Paleolithic period through the formation of the earliest states in Europe.

Studies the peopling of the continent, landscape evolution, origins and spread of agriculture, and the rise of chiefly forms of social organization. Also examines Meso-American influences, and the effects of European conquest.

Examines the history and culture of both mainland and island Southeast Asia, emphasizing kinship, religion, and political systems, as well as art forms.

Field Research Archaeology provides an intensive and rewarding archaeological field and lab experience for graduate and undergraduate students interested in archaeology. Field school is geared towards college students with some interest in North American Archaeology. The goal is to introduce college students to the techniques of archaeological site location, artifact identification, excavation, mapping, and material analysis in a fun but rigorous academic setting. Students will locate, excavate, document and interpret a major archaeological site in western New York while learning professional techniques and using the latest technology available including a laser transit and total station. This exciting six week experience includes hands-on instruction and active participation by all students and instructors. Students will take away the skills of site survey, mapping, excavation, soil sampling, artifact processing, artifact identification and analysis, and in the interpretation of a Native American archaeological site. Secondary goals of the course include discovering how people made and used stone tools and some of the earliest pottery in western New York. The team will reconstruct ancient artifacts and life ways while exploring what kinds of foods were collected and processed at the site, and try to answer how and why people came to live at certain locations. Participants will learn to present archaeological information through multimedia platforms including video and web-based applications. The experience is made more comprehensive through a series of guest lectures regarding the current state of western New York archaeology, and of archaeology around the world.

Behavior, and social organization of non-human primates: current theories, evolutionary processes, and research methods, both in the field and in the laboratories.

Surveys natural communication systems within the animal kingdom, including the structure, functions, development, and evolution of natural communication systems among both human and non-human animals.

Studies descriptive and functional primate anatomy, with relevance to the origin and adaptation of groups within the order of primates.

Covers basic primate gross anatomy learned by dissecting and making comparative observations of various species of primates. There is a fee associated with this class.

Modern humans are very unusual primates. We have low levels of genetic variation relative to other primates, yet are outwardly quite diverse in our external appearance. This diversity is structured geographically due to the fact that we live on almost every continent on earth. The history of population dispersals, migrations, gene flow, and natural selection have shaped our genetic and phenotypic variation. Here we will explore the empirical reality of modern human population genetic and phenotypic variation and set it in its evolutionary and historical context.

Covers fundamentals of human skeletal anatomy through lecture, demonstration, and laboratory work. Considers procedures and applications in contemporary and historical human biology and in archaeology, stressing both technical approach and theoretical application. This lecture and laboratory course demonstrates the fundamentals of human skeletal biology and anatomy. Stresses procedures and applications used in evaluating archaeological and contemporary human populations. Considers forensic applications.

Examines contemporary human genetics relevant to families and society, including genetic diseases, family planning and demography, genetic counseling and prenatal diagnosis, genetic engineering, and genetics and the law. Provides students with sufficient understanding of contemporary human genetics to intelligently address these issues.

The ¿Palaeolithic¿ covers the timeframe from when our ancestors first began to manufacture stone tools in Africa (around three million years ago) through the point at which the last glacial period ended (i.e. up to the beginning of the Holocene). It is a fundamental phase, in which matters of biological and cultural evolution led eventually to the appearance of our species. This course explores the evidence for changing patterns of hominin behavior during this phase of our evolution. We will consider the major sites and material evidence that is used in current debates. We will evaluate the factors that might shape patterns in the distribution and form of Palaeolithic data. Critical thought will also be given to the use of behavioral models drawn from primatology (e.g. chimpanzee behavior) as well as anthropology (e.g. ethnographically recorded hunter-foragers) in the study of fossil hominin behavior. Questions will also be asked of the potential requirement for multidisciplinary engagement with associated fields, such as psychology. Key sites and case studies will be discussed, tracking the dispersal of hominins across the globe and the appearance of key behavioral innovations. The course will also consider the (frequently heated) debates regarding the emergence of ¿behavioral modernity.¿ Issues of cultural transmission and cultural evolution will also be covered.

Humans pass on and receive information, consciously and unconsciously, via social interactions. Some of this information manifests itself in the form of cultural traditions; for example, artifacts spread over time and space or the languages we speak. Using a framework of social transmission theory, many anthropologists have increasingly turned to evolutionary theory and methodology to study cultural traditions in material artifacts, language, or other products of cultural transmission processes. This course enables students to explore the main theoretical and methodological aspects of using social transmission theory and cultural evolutionary principles to address human behavioral patterns. A large part of the class deals with evolutionary theory, and allows students to better understand evolutionary theory and its application. Case studies will be presented, which will highlight the broad range of data to which such approaches may be applied. We will consider a range of case studies from a diversity of chronological periods and geographic settings (including contemporary settings). You will also critically consider the concept of ¿culture,¿ its presence (or otherwise) in animals other than humans, and what this may mean for the study of cultural phenomena. Students will come to see how contemporary applications of this approach differ from previous (and often theoretically erroneous) applications of evolutionary principles to the study of human behavior, which negatively taint evolutionary approaches to humanity to this day. The course will also help to dispel common misconceptions regarding the use of evolutionary theory to study culture, but be sensitively astute as to the reasons why these issues arise. By the end of the course, students will have an understanding of both the theoretical and practical (methodological) tools involved in this type of work, and be able to conceive of how to apply them across various aspects of anthropological research.

DescriptionIntroduction to the field of primatology and the diversity of primates alive today. Students cover topics including primate taxonomy, ecology, evolution, and conservation. The course is taught using a combination of lectures, discussions, hands-on activities, and offsite visits to the Buffalo Zoo.

This course provides an introduction to the principles of Evolutionary Medicine, and how these principles can be applied to combat growing public health crises in human society. Evolutionary Medicine is a rapidly growing multidisciplinary field that uses evolutionary biology to answer questions about modern human health and disease. Instead of focusing on cellular or molecular mechanisms, this field seeks to understand the larger ultimate reasons why people get sick: Why has evolution left us so vulnerable to diseases such as obesity, heart disease, cancer, back pain, anxiety and depression? In this course you will investigate these questions by applying evolutionary theory and principles of human evolution to understand the causes of modern diseases, and how we can better prevent and/or treat them.

Examines art, iconography, architectures, and archaeology of ancient Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize; also covers religious, political, and economic development from its beginning, around 2000 B.C.E., to its decapitation by the Spaniards in 1521.

Explores cultures of hunting, pastoral, and agricultural societies, including history, social structure, political and economic systems, religion, and aesthetics. Also considers the impact of colonialism, industrialization, urbanism, and political independence upon African societies and cultures.

Understanding the nature of magic and the anthropology of sorcery and witchcraft beliefs around the world and throughout history offers insights into some fundamental aspects of human belief and behavior. The course will show that the ways of thinking which comprise what anthropology calls magic and the complex attributes of the imaginary evil witch, are not only absolutely universal, they are rooted in our evolutionary biology and hence are basic to the human condition.

This course explores mythology both as a kind of knowing and as sacred stories in religion, literature, anthropology, psychoanalysis, and science. Students will discuss and write about the myths, tales, and legends told by a variety of authors, from indigenous North American storytellers, orators, singers, and dramatists to medieval Germanic poets to British novelists. Class discussion and lecture will raise, from a variety of perspectives, the question of how mythology attempts to explain where and how the world and we came to be. This course is the same as APY 379, and course repeat rules will apply.

Surveys the indigenous societies of cultures and South America, including both highland Andean and lowland Amazonian people. Provides a perspective on the prehistory, history, and contemporary situation of native South Americans, examining traditional anthropological topics as well as current political issues surrounding indigenous rights, integration into national societies, and environmental destruction.

Compares religious beliefs, rituals, and organization; also considers relationships of religion to other aspects of culture and society, and religion as a dynamic system.

This course will focus on the healing traditions of Native South American people as an important part of our contemporary experience. We will examine the images, forms, and meanings that are common to the healing experience of many Native South Americans: concepts of order, time, space, power, destruction, and renewal which allow us to group them together despite their geographical and sociopolitical diversity. We will also analyze some specific ethnographic examples of how they are manifested through funerary cannibalism, shamanism, sorcery, animal spirits and metaphors, the use of tobacco, narcotics and hallucinogens, and rituals for healing, fertility and collective well-being. Classes will consist of presentations, viewing films, and class discussions.

Reviews the growth of anthropology as a scientific discipline. Analyzes in detail major anthropological approaches and theories.

Europe has become a major area of investigation for cultural anthropologists since the 1980s. What contributions can anthropologists make to understandings of contemporary Europe? How does the Anthropology of Europe contribute to wider developments in anthropological theory and method? By taking this course, students will deepen their knowledge of anthropological approaches to the study of people living in Europe, European societies and cultures (at local and national levels), and the European Union.

Course content varies by instructor.

Studies the four horsemen in all their guises. Examines their importance historically and at present. They have been and are religious icons, symbols of the major processes of warfare, disease, famine, and death, as well as cultural, literary, and artistic symbols throughout the generations. The course traces one of the horsemen through both time and space in the intellectual area of the students' choice.

Museum and collection management and research is motivated by two things: a love of objects, and a fascination with the ways in which they speak about the past and present. The care of artifacts cannot stop at identification, physical conservation and exhibition. Research about museum and collection objects must be seen as part of a larger task: an exploration of the social and cultural significance of objects in relation to each other and to the people who made, used, and kept them as well as who collected them. Conservation must include preservation of the information accompanying an object, information beyond provenance, or artifact type. Finally, curatorial research entails a critical awareness of our own culturally-bound responses to artifacts. This course prepares students for research in the museum environment, and for the challenge of developing meaning and value for those collections in the context of the Cravens Collection housed since March 2010 in the Anderson Gallery of the UB College of Arts and Sciences where the course will be held. Each class integrates presentations, group work and discussion, case studies, and independent research. In addition, the instructor will facilitate visits from guest lecturers. At the end of the course, the students will curate together their own public exhibition of objects from the Cravens Collection and will write up short narratives about the objects they have studied during the course. The narratives will then be included in an exhibition catalogue. N.B.: Please note that the course will take place in the Anderson Gallery of the UB College of Arts and Sciences (1 Martha Jackson Place).

This is a topics course, and as such, represents a wide variety of potential offerings. Information about the current semester's topic(s) can be found here: http://anthropology.buffalo.edu/courses/undergraduate/

This is a topics course, and as such, represents a wide variety of potential offerings. Information about the current semester's topic(s) can be found here: http://anthropology.buffalo.edu/courses/undergraduate/

Considers the origin of the city, starting with Mesopotamia. Defines urban and civilization, examines the urban environment, and compares the archaeological city to the modern city.

This is a topics course, and as such, represents a wide variety of potential offerings. Information about the current semester's topic(s) can be found here: http://anthropology.buffalo.edu/courses/undergraduate/

This course explores these three late prehistoric and protohistoric cultures in Europe, and their impact on the course of European development. Topics of study will include political and economic organization, such as the rise of chiefdoms and states and their political economies, technology, trade and cultural contact, plus social structure and ideology, aesthetic expression, and religious beliefs. We will also examine current myths and stereotypes about these cultures, and their role in modern national and ethnic identity construction. This course is dual-listed with APY 611.

Examines the development and demographic characteristics of human populations in the prehistoric and ethnographic record.

Topics vary. May be taken more than once for credit.

Behavioral Research Methods provides students with first-hand experience in all of the steps involved to conduct scientific research: developing a research question, selecting appropriate observation methods, collecting data, and summarizing their findings in a written report and formal scientific presentation. This course is dual listedd with APY 547.

Recent advances in genetic technology have presented the scientific and lay community with ethical and legal problems, yet to be resolved. The objective of this course is to provide an opportunity for informed discussions of such issues relating to contemporary human/medical issues.

Explores Mayan civilization from its earliest beginnings to the current situation. The seminar begins with the pre-classic roots of Mayan civilization, then moves through classic splendor, post-classic turbulence, the European invasion, and into the current period of rebellion and ethnic resurgence. Students select a particular geographically and linguistically distinctive Mayan population and trace the group historically through artifacts, written records, life histories, and ethnographies. Student activities include active class participation in discussions and preparation of an annotated bibliography on a key aspect of Mayan civilization.

This course explores the pre- and protohistoric record of human-environment interaction, as well as current traditional environmental knowledge (TEK). Scholars once imagined such relationships as unchanging and predictable, focusing on humans as victims or destroyers. Today, research examines socio-natural systems as complex interactions between the non-living world and living creatures, and between humans and other organisms. Modern ecosystems are historically contingent and represent centuries or millennia of human-environment interactions. Course material focuses on archaeological, historical and interdisciplinary examples of problems and solutions to environment-related conditions. This course is dual-listed with APY 729. This course is the same as EVS 459 and course repeat rules will apply. Students should consult with their major department regarding any restrictions on their degree requirements.

Humans have evolved over the course of several million years since our common ancestor with chimpanzees, and in that time many different species of ancient human have walked the earth. In this course we will take a deep dive into the fossil record to learn about these species, and the series of remarkable adaptations in our lineage that resulted in modern humans. In so doing, you will learn about the ancient environments our ancestors inhabited, their diet and anatomy, and the evolutionary processes that led to our unique form bipedal walking and running, as well as our enormous and complex brains. This course will consist of lectures and group discussions, as well as in-class activities where you will examine castes of ancient human fossils. This course is dual-listed with APY 561.

This course takes a broad historical and geographical approach aimed at encompassing the ethnographic diversity that characterizes city life.

Explores the culture and social organization of health-care systems in the United States, including mainstream allopathic medicine and nursing, as well as more 'alternative healing' modalities, such as faith healing, chiropractic, 'New Age' healing, and so forth. Gives students a specifically anthropological understanding of health care in American society. This anthropological perspective draws attention to the many diverse components of health care in the United States, from high-tech advanced medical science to faith healing.

This course is an introduction to disability studies. Researchers working within this sub-field search for understanding of societal and cross-cultural attitudes and policies regarding impairment, illness, and difference, especially those whose physical or behavioral differences have been stigmatized through negative social or medical labels. Among the topics to be considered are the meanings and perceptions of impairment in various cultures and how individuals and their families experience disability, severe injury, stigmatized illnesses, and severe trauma and come to develop new identities through these experiences. We will consider community support systems and government policies that positively or negatively affect traumatized and disabled individuals and their families.

Topics vary. Seniors have registration priority.

Students wishing to complete an internship with a host agency may register for this course with the agreement of the agency supervisor and the faculty advisor.

Individually designed program of reading, research, or skills development in close association with an instructor.