Undergraduate Course Offerings:
ANTH 1301 Introduction to Anthropology (3-0)
A survey of the study of humankind’s past, present, and future. This course introduces students to the four major subfields of anthropology covering everything from the evolutionary history of Homo sapiens and our distant relatives through hunting and gathering to industrial societies, their social and political organization, ritual and religion, and the use of language. Satisfies SRSU Core Curriculum in Social and Behavioral Sciences or the Core Component Option.
ANTH 1302 Introduction to Archaeology (3-0)
This course introduces the field of archaeology including an overview of basic concepts, methods, and theory. We will consider major events in human history over the past 60,000+ years and discuss significant developments and changes in human behavior while learning how archaeologists use multiple lines of evidence to reconstruct the past. Topics include origins of agriculture, the development of state societies, archaeological ethics, and archaeology’s future. Satisfies SRSU Core Curriculum in Language, Philosophy, and Culture or the Core Component Option.
ANTH 2303 Readings and Research (3-0)
Selected readings on research projects to be offered as individual study to meet student needs. May be repeated once for credit with departmental approval.
ANTH 3401 Research Methods in Archaeology (3-1)
This course introduces the use of scientific methodologies and basic data collection techniques to prepare students for conducting archaeological research projects in both academic and professional settings. This class covers research design, background research, using ethnographic and archaeological analogy, collecting quantitative and qualitative data, digital data management, data visualization, and basic data analysis using Microsoft Excel and R. Students apply these methods to a research project of their own design. The course requires lab attendance each week.
ANTH 3601 Summer Archaeological Field School (1-5)
An intensive six-week summer field course that provides hands-on training for students in archeological field and analytical techniques, including site survey and recording, instrument mapping, site testing and evaluation, controlled excavation, and field laboratory techniques. Location to be announced. This course requires camping, and fieldwork is conducted in remote, rugged terrain in extreme temperatures. Prerequisite: ANTH 1301 and ANTH 1302 or consent of instructor. Visit the Field School page for more information.
Graduate Course Offerings
ANTH 5300 Seminar in Cultural Anthropology Theory (3-0)
This graduate-level seminar provides a broad overview of sociocultural anthropological theory and thought, with an emphasis on the development of cultural anthropology as an academic discipline. Throughout the semester, we will consider various anthropological epistemologies and approaches to society and culture in anthropological theory. Topics include positivistic/critical, material/ideal, synchronic/diachronic, individualist/structural, and scientific/humanistic approaches.
ANTH 5301 Seminar in Archaeology Theory (3-0)
This graduate-level seminar covers the history of archaeological theory and its intersection with archaeological methods. Graduate students will receive a solid foundation in archaeological theory and an ability to understand, critically assess, and contribute to debates concerning contemporary thinking in archaeology. Topics range from culture history to cognitive archaeology and historical/postcolonial theory.
ANTH 5302 Research Methods in Anthropology I: Research Design (3-0)
This seminar provides a detailed overview of developing research designs in anthropology. The course covers philosophy of science, the scientific method, research designs for academic and cultural resource management projects, Western and non-Western research, community engagement, public outreach, and different forms of dissemination. The objective of this course is to prepare students to develop their own research design as part of their MA project.
ANTH 5303 Research Methods in Anthropology II: Data Analysis (3-0)
This is a hands-on data driven course that provides graduate students with an introduction to data collection and analysis techniques within anthropology and archaeology. This class covers field data collection and lab analysis, quantitative and qualitative methods using a variety of techniques (e.g., metric and non-metric, residue analyses, aDNA, pXRF, experimental, etc.), digital and physical data management, statistics and data analysis using various software packages, data visualization, curation, and scientific writing. The final product for this class is a thesis proposal and presentation of the student’s research design.
ANTH 5304 GIS for Anthropologists (3-0)
This graduate-level course will introduce the skills and methods of using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology in anthropology. This class will consist of lectures, case study readings, discussions, and hands-on computer lab exercises that will allow students to learn how to map, analyze, and assess anthropological research. Students will learn the basic principles of GIS, best data collection practices, and principles for producing maps and creating models for analysis.
ANTH 5305 Cultural Resource Management (3-0)
Every year, most archaeological work carried out in the United States is related to Cultural Resource Management (CRM), which is the largest employer of professional archaeologists. This graduate-level course is designed to provide students with an overview of the important legislation that defines this industry, especially relating to the National Historic Preservation Act. Students will learn various perspectives on how CRM is done through guest lectures and hands-on field instruction.
ANTH 6040 Project Research (1-9)
Research for thesis project. Prerequisite: MA students that have been admitted to candidacy. May be repeated. Student can register for 1-9 credits.
ANTH 6302 Thesis Defense (3-0)
This course represents a student’s final semester of thesis enrollment, and passing this course signifies completion of a thesis project and that all required documents have been submitted for graduation. The student continues to enroll in this course until the thesis is submitted.
Cross-listed Electives (Undergraduate and Graduate)
ANTH 4301/5310 Archaeology of the Greater Big Bend Region (3-0)
This course introduces students to the Indigenous history in the greater Big Bend Region from 13,000-plus years ago to early historical contact with Spanish entradas during the 16th and 17th centuries A.D. We will examine prominent archaeological sites associated with foragers, horticulturalists, and agriculturalists living in the Big Bend area as well as the adjacent areas in Texas, the American Southwest, Northwest Mexico, and the Great Plains.
ANTH 4302/5311 Human Ecology (3-0)
This course examines the dynamic interplay between humans and the environment. Students will draw from ethnographic studies of recent and contemporary cultures to understand cultural adaptations and changes across global environmental settings, from Arctic tundra to shifting sands of the Sahara. Ethnographic examples provide analogs to then trace ancient ecologies from hunter-gatherer exploitation of plant and animal resources to the environmental impacts around ancient city states.
ANTH 4303/5312 Lithic Analysis (3-0)
This course surveys the relationship between hominins and stone tool technology, beginning with the earliest evidence of stone tools in Africa to the recent past. Students will learn to identify stone tools in the field and to examine them in a laboratory setting using macroscopic and microscopic methods. We will also produce stone tools using traditional and experimental methods and apply those tools to realistic cutting, grinding, and projectile tasks. Last, we will consider theoretical issues in technological adaptation and organization among humans and our ancestors.
ANTH 4304/5313 Experimental Archaeology (3-0)
In this course we will consider the application of experimental and experiential methods to understanding the intersection between technology and ancient human lives. We will use hands-on approaches to replicate and test past technologies (shelters, containers, cutting tools, weapons, etc.) and controlled laboratory methods to isolate variables of past tool applications. Throughout, we will consider the efficacy of different experimental approaches from a theoretical perspective.
ANTH 4305/5314 Hunter-Gatherers (3-0)
For more than 95% of human history, hunting and gathering was the primary lifeway of every human on the planet. Perceptions and descriptions of this lifestyle have ranged from the romanticism of a “simpler time” to harsh descriptions of people living on the edge of survival. This course provides students with a foundation in hunter-gatherer populations and breaks down stereotypes surrounding hunter-gatherers, while also learning about the variation in adaptation of these populations and how anthropologists work with these groups
ANTH 4306/5315 Rock Art Research (3-0)
Humans have produced rock “art” for at least 65,000 years. These painted, pecked, and incised images are a critical component of the archaeological record. This course introduces students to contemporary rock art recording methods, analytical techniques, theory, and overviews of rock art traditions in the Big Bend and surrounding areas.
ANTH 4307/5316 The Anthropology of War (3-0)
This course covers the origins of war and violence in the genus Homo. We will use multiple subdisciplines of anthropology to explore the origins and perpetuation of violent conflict: Archaeology allows us to examine the deep time associated with indicators of violence around the globe. Primatology offers multiple analogs of violence from other social primates. Finally, cultural anthropology provides a cross-cultural perspective of the role of violence in contemporary groups. We will use these studies to examine the most prominent questions about the potential for peace and the inherent role of violence in our species.
ANTH 4308/5317 First Peoples of the Western Hemisphere (3-0)
The peopling of the Western Hemisphere is a contentious and exciting topic with inherent political ramifications in the modern world. In this course students will learn the theories and hard data regarding the earliest peoples to explore and occupy North and South America, when they first arrived, where they came from, the technologies they employed, which modern populations they are most closely related to genetically, and the potential impacts they had on the Pleistocene landscape, including their possible role in the extinction of numerous genre of Pleistocene megafauna.
ANTH 4309/5318 Anthropology of Hunting (3-0)
Hunting remains an important part of human lives and a component of our ecological footprint since deep in our evolutionary history. Although some aspects of hunting have not changed, others have varied radically across space and through time. However accurate, modern popular perceptions of ancient hunters also have profound political ramifications, impacting human-environmental dynamics and even displacing Indigenous hunters from ancestral lands. In this class the student will study the origins of hunting, how it has changed with hominin evolution, how the adoption of new technologies impacts hunting, how different hunting methods are used in different environments and by diverse cultures, the ecological implications of human predation, and the contentious topic of hunting in a modernizing world.
ANTH 4310/5319 Readings and Research in Anthropology (3-0)
Selected readings on research projects to be offered as individual study to meet student needs. May be repeated once for credit with departmental approval.
ANTH 4311/5320 Special Topics in Anthropology (3-0)
Special courses on topics not included in the regular curriculum. May be repeated for credit with departmental approval.