Course Descriptions

Please consult the Faculty of Arts and Science Calendar for brief course descriptions and prerequisites. Detailed course outlines, which may list textbooks and grade distribution for each course, are available for most courses in the Undergraduate Office in the Anthropology Department, Anthropology Building, 19 Russell Street, Room 258 in late August of each year, or at the first course lecture.

 

COURSE OFFERINGS / TIMETABLE: Three Winter timetables are issued: the Fall/Winter Registration Handbook and Timetable is available in late March along with the Arts & Science Calendar, an update is issued in June and a revised version is issued in early September. They contain specific instructions for registration and enrolment in courses and programs, together with detailed timetable and scheduling information. As well, a Summer Session timetable is available in late March.

 

THE FOLLOWING COURSE DESCRIPTIONS ARE BASED ON THE 2013-14 ARTS AND SCIENCE CALENDAR

• 100- and 200-Level ANT Courses
• 300-Level ANT Courses
• 400-Level ANT Courses

 

100- and 200-Level ANT Courses

 

ANT 100Y - INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY

ANT 100Y examines society and culture from various anthropological perspectives: Biological Anthropology, the study of the evolution and biological diversity of humans and non-human primates; Archaeology, the study of the material evidence of  human activities in the past; Linguistic and Semiotic Anthropology,  the study of ways in which language and other systems of human communication contribute to the reproduction, transmission and transformation of culture; Social / Cultural Anthropology, the study of  the great range of social and cultural organization in societies of varying complexity.  The course involves attendance at one two-hour lecture per week.

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3) + Living Things and Their Environment (4)

 

ANT 110H - NATURE: A CULTURAL INTRODUCTION

The distinction between nature and culture is often described as a central feature of "modernity" and it certainly remains relevant to many current debates about ecology and environment. This course explores various approaches to "nature" through a variety of written and visual texts, and focuses on representations of the nature/culture dualism. The course's main objectives are 1) to engender discussion and debate about "nature" and how it is represented in a variety of contemporary texts; 2) introduce students to some of the key positions on "nature" among classical and contemporary social theorists; and 3) expose students to pressing ecological issues in a way that fosters their critical engagement with "nature frameworks." 

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

 

ANT 200Y - INTRODUCTION TO ARCHAEOLOGY

How did art and technology develop in the course of human evolution?  What led to the development of agriculture and settled village life?  How did social inequality and urbanism emerge?  This course takes a global perspective to explore the archaeological evidence that sheds light on these questions and other aspects of prehistory and early history.  Students will engage with the challenges posed by new discoveries and also with recent developments in archaeological method and theory.  The goal of the course is to involve students with the current state of archaeological research and some of the major issues archaeologists work to address.

• Recommended Preparation: ANT 100Y 
  

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course

Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 203Y - THE NATURE OF HUMANS

This course examines where humans fit in the fabric of the natural world.  It explores the history of ideas about humans in nature, humans as primates, the story of human evolution and modern human physical and genetic diversity.

The course is organized around weekly lectures of two hours and weekly tutorials. 

• Recommended Preparation: ANT 100Y/BIO 120H, 220H
  

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Science course
Breadth Requirement: Living Things and Their Environment (4)

ANT 204H  - ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD (formerly ANT 204Y)

A course focused on recent anthropological scholarship that seeks to understand and explain the transformation of contemporary societies and cultures. Topics may include some of the following: new patterns of global inequality, war and neo-colonialism, health and globalization, social justice and indigeneity, religious fundamentalism, gender inequalities, biotechnologies and society etc.

• Recommended Preparation: ANT 100Y
  
• Exclusion: ANT 204Y
  

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 207H - CORE CONCEPTS IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Society, culture, kinship, exchange, community, identity, politics, belief: these and other core concepts are explored in this course, which lays the foundation for advanced courses in social and cultural anthropology.

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 208H - MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: AN EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE ON HUMAN HEALTH

Introduction to applied evolutionary medical anthropology. It explores evidence for the evolution of human vulnerability to disease across the life cycle (conception to death) and implications for health of contemporary populations in gendered cross-cultural perspective.

• Recommended Preparation: ANT 100Y1/BIO 120H1 

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science or Science course
Breadth Requirement: Living Things and Their Environment (4)

 

ANT 253H - LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY (formerly JAL 253H)

This course introduces linguistic analysis with a view towards its application to the study of the relation between culture and social structure. The interplay of pronunciation, grammar, semantics, and discourse with rituals, ideologies, and constructions of social meaning and worldview are discussed in tandem with the traditional branches of linguistic analysis - phonology, morphology, grammar, syntax, and semantics. The objective of the course is to provide a broad framework for understanding the role of language in society.

• Recommended Preparation: ANT 100Y 
• Exclusion: JAL 253H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)

 

300-Level ANT Courses

ARH 305H - ARCHAEOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION 

This course looks at how archaeologists investigate and reconstruct the archaeological record. We deal less with general theories of human behaviour, and more with how archaeologists approach the archaeological record and make sense of it. In other words, the focus is on middle range theory. We will consider some of the interpretive tools that archaeologists use, including analogy, ethnoarchaeology, and experimental archaeology. This is something of a 'hands-on' course. In addition to lectures, we will work through examples of the kinds of problems that archaeologists face during the course of research.

• Prerequisite: ANT 200Y  
  

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)

 

ARH 306Y - ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD METHODS

Intensive instruction in archaeological field methods and acquisition of field skills, including archaeological search and survey, site mapping, laying out excavation grids, use of theodolites, total station, and GPS, stratigraphic excavation, stratigraphy, field recording, screening sediment, Ontario license and reporting requirements. Normally this course would take place on campus in the summer.

• Prerequisite: ANT 200Y1 or NMC 260Y1 or NMC 261Y0

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: None

 

ARH 309H - ARCHAEOLOGY, ETHICS AND THE PUBLIC

An analysis of ethics in contemporary archaeology that covers reburial and repatriation, interpretation of the arc-haeological record in the context of historically oppressed groups, ethnic minorities, and non-western societies, the ethics of collecting and managing cultural property, relationships with the media, the debates surrounding looting, and other issues.

• Prerequisite: ANT 200Y  
  

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course

Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 311Y - ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELDWORK

Practical field training through six weeks of excavation on an archaeological site. Basic principles of artifact handling and classification (Offered only in the Summer Session)

• Prerequisite: ANT 200Y

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: None

 

ARH 312Y - ARCHAEOLOGICAL LABORATORY  

This course deals with those aspects of archaeological method and theory involved in processing archaeological materials from the time excavation or survey is complete to publication of results. The lectures will give students background in skills for lab work in either academic or CRM archaeology. They begin with an introduction to what constitutes post-fieldwork archaeological activity and cover measurement theory in archaeology and some of the basic problems with analyzing lithics, pottery, carbonized seeds, or animal bones. Students will apply basic descriptive and inferential statistics. The lectures will also provide a basic introduction to computer database theory in the context of archaeological data. The labs will vary from week to week to give students hands-on experience with a variety of problems and materials and to reinforce the work covered in the text. Instructions for the labs are on the web site.

• Prerequisites: ANT 200Y and a half statistics course (e.g., GGR 270H*, STA 220H, 221H, 257H, 261H, ANTC35H3**)

* Geography pre- or co-requisites waived for Anthropology and Archaeology students

**Scarbourough course 

Textbook :

Banning, E.B. The Archaeologist's Laboratory. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishing, New York.

A basic statistics text, such as Rowntree's Statistics without Tears or Drennan's Archaeological Statistics: A Commonsense Approach, is recommended.  

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)

 

ANT 314H - ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST

An archaeological survey of the human prehistory of northwestern North America from the late Pleistocene to the time of early European contact.  Geographical coverage will include the Northwest Coast, California, and the Intermontane Plateau.

• Prerequisite: ANT 200Y1

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 315H - ARCTIC ARCHAEOLOGY

Archaeology  and ethnohistory of Arctic cultures. Emphasis is on variation of social organization, settlement pattern, economy, ideology, and interaction with the expanding European world-system.   

• Prerequisite: ANT 200Y

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 316H - ANCIENT CULTURES OF MESOAMERICA

This course provides an introduction to the cultures of Mesoamerica, from the first arrival of indigenous peoples to the appearance of the Spaniards in the sixteenth century.  Students will become acquainted with cultures including Olmec, Zapotec, Teotihuacan, Maya, and Aztec, while also considering issues of method and evidence.

• Prerequisite: ANT 200Y

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 317H - ARCHAEOLOGY OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA

This course examines the precontact and early contact period culture history of eastern North America, including Ontario, through archaeological evidence. Topics covered include the earliest peopling of the region at the end of the Ice Age, diversity of hunter-gatherer societies, introduction of agriculture, and the development of the dynamic First Nations societies who eventually met and interacted with Europeans.

• Prerequisite: ANT 200Y

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 318H - THE PREINDUSTRIAL CITY AND URBAN SOCIAL THEORY

This course offers a comparative examination of the rise and organization of ancient cities through a detailed investigation of urban social theory.  We will explore competing anthropological interpretations of urban process while probing the political, ideological, and economic structures of the world’s earliest cities.  Students will have the opportunity to consider a broad range of subjects, including mechanisms of city genesis; urban-rural relations; the intersections of city and state; and historical variation in urban landscapes, ideologies, and political economies.  

• Prerequisite: ANT 200Y1

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 319Y - ARCHAEOLOGY OF NORTH AMERICA (FORMERLY ANT 310Y)

This course examines human prehistory in North America, North of Mexico, from the time of earliest occupation to European contact. Special topics include Paleoindian and Archaic adaptations, the rise of complex hunter-gatherers, origins of farming and the evolution of complex chiefdoms.

• Exclusion: ANT 309H, 310Y
• Prerequisite: ANT 200Y

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 320H - ANCIENT CULTURES OF THE ANDES

This class offers intensive study of the archaeology and culture history of the Andean region prior to the Spanish conquest.  The complexity and distinctiveness of Andean social organization, political institutions, religious ideologies, and economic practices have long fascinated anthropologists.  Ultimately, the course will explore Andean cultures over a 10,000 year period, highlighting key debates, current research projects, and innovative theoretical approaches shaping contemporary archeological scholarship in South America and beyond.    
Prerequisite: ANT100Y1 or ANT200Y1

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course

Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 322H - ANTHROPOLOGY OF YOUTH CULTURE

This course will present various perspectives on the nature and dynamics of youth culture. It will discuss the research accumulated over the past quarter century on youth lifestyles, from fashion and music to the formation and spread of slang. It will also look at the various critical and controversial aspects of adolescence in contemporary culture.

• Prerequisite: ANT 204H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 324H - TOURISM AND GLOBALIZATION (FORMERLY ANT 443H)

The course uses tourism as a lens to examine global connections. Particular focus will be on the politics of cultural encounters. Drawing examples from diverse ethnographic materials, the course explores how different visions of the world come into contact, negotiated and transformed, and how tourist encounters shape people's everyday lives.

• Prerequisite: ANT204H or ANT 207H
  
• Exclusion: ANT 443H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

  

ANT 329H - LANGUAGE AND POWER STRUCTURE (FORMERLY ANT 329Y)

The role of language and symbolism in the representation and manipulation of ideology and power structure. Case materials drawn from the study of verbal arts, gender, law, advertising, and politics with a focus on North America.

• Prerequisite: ANT 204H1 or ANT 207H1 or ANT 253H1 or VIC 223Y1 or one of 200+ series H1 course in SOC or POL or LIN or Women's Studies
  
• Exclusion: ANT 329Y  

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)

 

ANT 330Y -  PALEOANTHROPOLOGY FIELD SCHOOL   

This course provides background in the practical and theoretical aspects of fieldwork in Paleoanthropology. Students are trained in the treatment and analysis of fossil vertebrates, plant macro- and micro-fossils and sediments. Excursions to paleoanthropological localities of Homo erectus and Homo sapiens, and excavation at a hominoid site. (Joint undergraduate-graduate)

• Prerequisite: ANT 203Y1

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Science course
Breadth Requirement: Living Things and Their Environment (4)

 

ANT 333Y - LIVING PRIMATE ADAPTATIONS

 

This course consists of a survey of living primates and a review of the evolutionary history of the Order Primates. The course describes the behavioural and anatomical adaptations that are characteristic to this order of mammals, and examines the fossil record of this group for the last 60 million years. This lab-oriented course compares the anatomy and adaptations of modern primates with the abundant and diverse primate skeletal material preserved in the fossil record. The understanding of the biological diversity and the evolutionary history of primates is important for further understanding of human adaptations and evolution. 

• Prerequisite: ANT 203Y
• Exclusion: ANT 333H
• Recommended Preparation: ANT 334H; BIO 120H, 220H
  

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Science course
Breadth Requirement: Living Things and Their Environment (4)

 

ANT 334H - HUMAN SKELETAL BIOLOGY (FORMERLY ANT 334Y)

Exploration of the development and maintenance of the human skeleton and dentition, with emphasis on application to archaeological, forensic and biomedical sciences.

• Prerequisite: ANT 203Y 
• Exclusion: ANT 334Y
  

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Science course
Breadth Requirement: Living Things and Their Environment (4)

 

ANT 335Y - HUMAN EVOLUTION  

This course takes the student on a survey of human evolution from our ape ancestors to modern humans.  Students will learn to identify skulls, teeth and limb bones, explore hundreds of casts, and learn how researchers understand human origins and trends in the development of human anatomy and behavior.

This course will take the student on a wide ranging survey of the fossil evidence of human evolution from our ape ancestors through to the appearance of modern humans.  Students will learn to identify living monkey, ape and human skulls, jaws, teeth and limb bones, and learn the basic techniques for distinguishing among them.  Students will explore dozens of casts from our extensive collection of fossil apes and early members of the human family and learn how researchers understand how humans evolved from an ape ancestor, the origin of human bipedalism and early trends in the development of the human face and brain.  Students will then explore our large collection of fossil casts of members of our genus, the genus /Homo/ and trace events leading from the earliest /Homo/ species with small brains, large teeth and simple tools through /Homo/ /erectus/ and the spread of humans out of Africa, the origins of our closest evolutionary cousins, the Neandertals, and the origins of our species, /Homo sapiens/.  The course is divided into lectures and labs.  The lectures provide background information, context, and guidance for the labs.  The labs provide students will a great deal of hands-on exposure to fossil casts to examine features on casts that are described in the lectures and readings.

• Exclusion: ANT 429H1 (St. George course), ANT 332H5, 333H5, 434H5 (UTM courses), ANTC17H3 (UTSC course)
  

• Prerequisite: ANT203Y

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Science course
Breadth Requirement: Living Things and Their Environment (4)

 

ANT 336H - EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY THEORY

This course will explore the foundational and leading concepts in evolutionary anthropology. Historically important readings and current concepts will be presented and discussed in the context of research, especially in areas of human population biology, ecology and the evolution of Homo sapiens. Topics will include behavioral ecology and life history theory, as well as a critique of the adaptationist program.

• Prerequisite: ANT 203Y1
  

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Science course
Breadth Requirement: Living Things and Their Environment (4)

 

ANT 340H - ANTHROPOLOGY OF LATIN AMERICA

This course provides a framework for understanding current anthropological issues in the different geo-political regions of Latin America. Special attention will be paid to historical/conceptual development of the discipline in the region, and the course will introduce a debate about the death and ‘resurgence’ of area studies.

• Prerequisite: ANT 204H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 341H - CHINA IN TRANSITION (FORMERLY ANT 341Y)

This course offers a general introduction to transformations in modern and contemporary China from an anthropological perspective.  This course covers major aspects of Chinese culture, history, and society in a global context.

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H
• Exclusion: ANT 341Y 

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 343H - SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY OF GENDER (FORMERLY ANT 343Y)

Social anthropological perspectives on variations in gender roles and systems. Examines, through comparison of ethnography, the relationship of gender to social organization, economic and political processes, belief systems and social change.

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H
• Exclusion: ANT 343Y 

 Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 345H - GLOBAL HEALTH: ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

This course examines medical anthropology’s contributions to, and critiques of, global health policies and programs. Topics covered include: colonialism and health, the political ecology of disease, indigenous constructions of illness and healing, medical pluralism, the politics of primary health care, population policies, reproductive health, and AIDS.

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H
• Recommended Preparation: ANT 348H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 346H - ANTHROPOLOGY OF FOOD

Social anthropological perspective on the nature and meaning of food production, culinary cultures, industrial food, food as metaphor, and famine and hunger.

• Prerequisite: ANT 204H or ANT 207H
  

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 347Y – METROPOLIS: GLOBAL CITIES

The role of culture, cultural diversity, space and performance in urban institutions and settings. The cultural context and consequence of urbanization.

• Recommended Preparation: ANT 204H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 348H - ANTHROPOLOGY OF HEALTH (FORMERLY ANT 348Y)

The course offers an advanced introduction to medical anthropology. The focus is on three major approaches to the subject: the epidemiology of health and illness, the cultural construction and context of disease, and the critical political economy of health. Topics will include the biomedicine and alternative therapies, the health consequences of alcohol and tobacco, environmental health, women and health, and an extended look at the global HIV/AIDS crisis.

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H 
• Exclusion: ANT 348Y

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 350H – ANTHROPOLOGY OF WORK

The course uses ethnographic material to examine ways in which global forces have changed the nature of work in different sites since World War Two – North America, Europe, and the countries of the South are selectively included.

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 351H - CONTESTED ENVIRONMENTS

This course utilizes a social movements perspective to examine the various kinds of conflicts emerging over “environment,” including disputes over food, animal rights, parks, wilderness, energy, and water. Building on the anthropological literature on landscape and political ecology, this course explores the various ways in which social movement constituencies are responding to and engaging with the uncertain and uneven nature of environmental change.

• Prerequisite: ANT 204H1

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 352H - SOUTH ASIA: PRACTICES, THEORIES, REPRESENTATIONS  (formerly ANT 352Y)

This course examines key themes in the constitution of South Asia as an area for ethnographic analysis.  Lectures and discussions will focus on classic works in the anthropology of South Asia, examining the rise of gatekeeping concepts such as caste, the village, collectivity, and the oppression of women. The course provides theoretical and historical perspectives for the anthropological study of contemporary South Asia.

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H
• Exclusion: ANT 352Y
  

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 353H - INDIGENEITY POLITICS

The course will focus on the dynamic interplay between developments in Canadian Indigenous rights, contested understandings of the environment and primary resource exploration/development in mining, forestry and hydro.  The changing relationship is challenging industry to re-think social/environmental responsibility, local vs national equity with implications beyond the Aboriginal community.

• Prerequisite: ANT 204H or ANT 207H1
  

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

JAL 353H - CONVERSATIONAL STRUCTURES

An introduction to the detailed observation of ordinary conversational interaction, and to some of the main ways in which such interaction is organized. The focus is on developing the capacity to discern orderliness in the details of everyday interaction, and beginning independent research in this area.

• Prerequisite: LIN 100Y/LIN 200H/ANT 253H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)

 

JAL 355H - LANGUAGE AND GENDER

An introduction to some of the principal questions of feminist theory, as viewed from sociolinguistics.  Topics include:  socialization into gendered discourse patterns, cultural and ethnic differences in gendered interactions; the role of language and gender in legal, medical and labour settings; multilingualism, migration, imperialism and nationalism; sexuality, desire and queer linguistics, language, gender and globalization.

• Prerequisite: One full course equivalent at the 200-level in ANT/JAL/LIN/SOC/WGS
• Recommended preparation: ANT 204H/ANT 253H/SOC 200H/214H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 356H - ANTHROPOLOGY OF RELIGION

This course introduces anthropological definitions of religion; debates on rituals and rites of passage; rationality, religion and modernity; belief and body; religion and the media. It also engages with studies in the anthropology of popular and transnational religion, and the politics of religious movements.

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)

 

ANT 358H - MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

It is widely acknowledged that sharp disparities in disease burden and access to medical care characterize global patterns in health. These disparities affect the life chances of much of the world's population, based on class position, gender, and geographical region.

• Prerequisite: ANT 204H or ANT 207H
  

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ARH 360H - PREHISTORY OF THE NEAR EAST (FORMERLY ARH 360Y)

From earliest times through the rise of complex hunter-gatherers, and the food producing revolution to politically complex societies in Southwest Asia.

• Prerequisite: ANT 200Y or NMC 260Y
• Exclusion: ARH 360Y
  

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ARH 361H1H/Y - FIELD ARCHAEOLOGY

Opportunity for students participating in non-degree credit Archaeological digs to submit reports, field notes and term papers for degree credit.

• Prerequisite: Permission of Supervisor and Undergraduate Coordinator.

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: None

 

ANT 364H - ENVIRONMENT AND GLOBALIZATION (FORMERLY ANT 364Y)

This course will examine the relationships between humans and their environment in the context of contemporary efforts to ‘develop’ within or in opposition to the political economy of neoliberal globalization. We will critically examine international law and policy that purports to protect the environment paying particular attention to the question of how and why environmental issues have entered the global political arena. Using case studies, we will examine the relationship between environmental and human rights and between local and global interests.

• Prerequisite: ANT 204H or ANT 207H
• Exclusion: ANT 364Y
  

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 365H – NATIVE AMERICA AND THE STATE (FORMERLY ANT 365Y)

Culture areas and types existing in precontact and early contact times in North America; problems arising out of contacts between North American Indians and Euroamericans.

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H
• Exclusion: ANT 365Y

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 366H - ANTHROPOLOGY OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: THEORY AND METHOD (FORMERLY ANT 366Y)

Explores how anthropologists have traditionally studied social movements and how new social movements have challenged anthropologists to rethink some of their ethnographic methods and approaches. Some specific movements covered include those related to indigenous rights, environmentalism, refugees, gay and lesbian issues, biotechnology, new religions and globalization.   

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H
• Exclusion: ANT 366Y

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course

Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 369H - ANTHROPOLOGY IN ACTION

This course highlights the diverse ways that social/cultural anthropologists engage with the world beyond the university. Students learn about the many practical applications of anthropological methods and theory. As well, the ethical and political complexities of applied anthropology and activism in anthropology are considered.

• Prerequisite: ANT 204H
  

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 370H - INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY

An in-depth critical review of foundational ideas in the development of the practice of Anthropology.  Topics may include questioning fieldwork, origins and legacies of functionalism, cultural materialism, politics of culture, power and political economy, globalization and post modernism, gender and post-structuralism.

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H
  

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 371H - HUMAN NUTRITIONAL ECOLOGY (formerly ANT 471H)

A detailed review of human dietary adaptations, subsistence strategies and the suite of cognitive, cultural and life history traits that make humans so adaptable. Focus is on the relevance of the past to understanding the modern world food system and finding solutions to contemporary problems in population, food, and health.

• Prerequisite: ANT 203Y or ANT 204H
• Exclusion: ANT 471H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science or Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 372H - CULTURAL PROPERTY

This course explores the relationship between cultural property and everyday life through the themes of movement, ownership and value. Case studies, current events and debates help students understand how heritage is informed by the multiple values of cultural property.  This course addresses issues of cultural property and heritage in the contemporary world that are relevant to all subfields of anthropology.

• Prerequisite: ANT 100Y1 or ANT 110H1 or ANT 200Y1 or ANT 204H1 or ANT 207H1 or ANT 253H1

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course

Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 373H - ANTHROPOLOGY OF EDUCATION

This course focuses on the role of formal education in contemporary societies around the world.  Education and schooling have come to be accepted as essential for social development and economic growth.  This claim is critically assessed in terms of how education systems reflect and shape society, economy and politics at local, national and global levels.

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 374H - RETHINKING DEVELOPMENT OR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE WORLD

Development, or deliberate intervention to improve the lives of people deemed to be lacking, or left behind, has shaped the modern world for at least a century. Drawing on historical and ethnographic studies, this course examines the trajectory of development as a concept and practice, and traces its effects.

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course

Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 376H - ANTHROPOLOGY OF ANIMALS

The relationship between humans and other animals is one of the most hotly debated topics of our times. Through key classic and contemporary writings, this course introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of animal studies, and explores how anthropologists and other theorists have critically engaged in debates about “animal” and “human” distinctions.

• Prerequisite: ANT 204H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 378H - GIFT, MONEY AND FINANCE

This course introduces dialogue between anthropological literature and other disciplinary studies in regards to the economy and culture of gift and money transaction as a key aspect of human society. Studying the history of gift and money economy from agricultural societies and diverse developments of finance market culture in recent era through various perspectives (e.g., ethnographic, sociological, politico-economic, and historical views), this course aims to train students developing a critical understanding of capitalism.

• Prerequisite: ANT 204H1 or ANT 207H1 

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 380H  - CRAFT OF SOCIAL/ CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY (FORMERLY ANT 210H)

This course introduces students to the skills they need to read theory, conduct research, write essays, and do presentations in the field of social/cultural anthropology. The emphasis is on interactive, small group learning.

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H
• Exclusion: ANT 210H
  

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 395Y0/396Y0 - SPECIAL TOPICS IN ANTHROPOLOGY

Studies in anthropology taken abroad.  Areas of concentration vary depending on the instructor and year offered.

• Recommended Preparation: ANT 100Y/ANT 204H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: None

 

ANT 398H0/399Y0 - INDEPENDENT EXPERIENTIAL STUDY PROJECT

An instructor-supervised group project in an off-campus setting. See page 47 of the calendar for more details.

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: None

 

400-Level ANT Courses

ANT 406H – LITHIC ANALYSIS

Core reduction strategies, replication, experimental archaeology, use-wear, design approaches, ground stone, inferring behaviour from lithic artifacts.

• Prerequisite: ANT 200Y and ARH 312Y and ARH 305H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5)

 

ANT 407H - INKA AND AZTEC STATES

This course provides a comparative study of the emergence, organization, and transformation of the two historically-documented states of the native Americas: the Inka and the Aztec.  Students will have the opportunity to analyze ethnohistorical and archaeological data in order to critically evaluate models of the pre-industrial “state” while gauging the anthropological significance of either convergence or particularity in the historical development of centralized political formations.

• Prerequisite: ANT 200Y and ARH 305H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 409H - LANDSCAPE ARCHAEOLOGY 

Archaeological survey, spatial analysis of archaeological evidence over landscapes and territories, and ways archaeologists attempt to interpret landscapes, regional settlement systems, agricultural land use, regional exchange and communication, and past people's perceptions of or ideas about landscape.

• Prerequisite: ARH 305H
• Recommended Preparation: GGR 270H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 410H - HUNTER-GATHERERS PAST AND PRESENT

Examines the diversity of recent hunter-gatherer societies, as a source of analogues for understanding the archaeological record of past foraging peoples.

• Prerequisite: ARH 305H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 411H - ADVANCED ARCHAEOLOGICAL THEORY

The aim of this course is to acquaint students with some major theoretical issues currently confronting archaeology, with an emphasis on archaeological practice. At some point, every archaeologist must consider how theory helps to make sense of the archaeological record; if there is any meaning to the material remains of the past then how does theory help to unpack that meaning? 

A converse question may also be posed: how does the nature of archaeological data affect the types of theory used by archaeologists? The best way to understand how these questions interact in the practice of archaeology and in modern archaeological discourse is to read widely and discuss a variety of views. Thus, this course involves the reading of an average of four articles per class, and a significant part of the course mark is based on participation in discussions. 

• Prerequisite: ARH 305H 

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)

 

ANT 412H – HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY

Introduces the problems, methods and some of the material culture of colonial and industrial archaeology with emphasis on Canada and colonial America. Covers the use of documentary evidence, maps, architecture and a variety of artifact classes.

• Prerequisite: ANT 200Y or HIS 374H or HIS 384H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 415Y – LABORATORY IN FAUNAL ARCHAEO-OSTEOLOGY 

Faunal archaeo-osteology (also referred to as zooarchaeology) is a sub-discipline of archaeology, specializing in the study of animal bones in order to address issues as diverse as diet, site seasonality, hunting methods, animal domestication, trade and even prehistoric social stratification. This course is intended to introduce students to both the practical skills necessary to identify fragmentary bones, and the rapidly expanding body of method and theory which is available for their interpretation. Class will consist of a variable combination of lectures, demonstrations, lab activities, and seminar discussions. A key component of the course is the identification of a sample of at least 500 bones by each student.

• Prerequisite: ARH 312Y

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science or Science course
Breadth Requirement: The Physical and Mathematical Universes (5) + Living Things and Their Environment (4)

 

ANT 416H - ARCHAEOLOGY OF RITUAL AND IDENTITY

This course offers a comparative survey of archaeological approaches to ritual practice as it relates to identity politics, personhood, and the negotiation of power relations in past societies.  An important goal of the seminar is to introduce students to social theories on the inherent materiality of ritual performance, whether orchestrated in everyday practice or in elaborate religious and political spectacles.   

• Prerequisite: Completion of a minimum of 12.0 FCEs

• Recommended Preparation: ANT200Y1, ARH305H1

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course

Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)

 

 ANT 419H - CURRENT DEBATES IN PALAEOLITHIC  ARCHAEOLOGY

 Current research in Palaeolithic Archaeology reflecting emerging issues. 

• Prerequisite: ANT 200Y or ANT 203Y 

 Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 420H - ARCHAEOLOGY OF INEQUALITY

How social complexity is manifested in the archaeological record. Origins and evolution of prehistoric complex societies, from small-scale chiefdoms to large-scale states. 

• Prerequisite: ANT 200Y and ARH 305H 

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 425H1 - LANGUAGE IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL THOUGHT (FORMERLY ANT 325H1)

How ideas about language fit into the overall views of humankind as expressed by selected anthropologists, linguists, sociologists, and philosophers.

• Prerequisite: ANT 204H1 or ANT 207H1 or ANT 253H1 and 0.5 300+ level course from Group C

• Exclusion: ANT 325H1

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)

ANT 426H1 - WESTERN VIEWS OF THE NON-WEST

 

The history and present of western concepts and images about the ‘Other’, in anthropological and other scholarship and in popular culture. The focus is on representations of Muslims and Jews.

• Prerequisite: ANT 370H1 or ANT 329H1 or any 300-level course in NMC or in Jewish Studies

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course

Breadth Requirement: Creative & Cultural Representations (1)

 

ANT 427H - LANGUAGE, IDEOLOGY AND POLITICAL ECONOMY

 

Theoretical and empirical studies on the role of language in the reproduction and transformation of ideology, hegemony and political economy.  Topics may include language & colonialism, imperialism, globalization, nationalism, racism, sexism, bureaucratic interactions, environmentalism, migration, gentrification.  Compares and contrasts critical discourse analytic and linguistic anthropological approaches to method and politics.

• Prerequisite: ANT 253H
• Recommended Preparation:  ANT 329H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 430H - PRIMATE CONSERVATION BIOLOGY

The focus of this course is on the science of primate conservation biology in an anthropological context. Topics will include primate biodiversity and biogeography, human impacts, and conservation strategies/policies.  The effects of cultural and political considerations on primate conservation will also be discussed.

• Prerequisite: ANT 203Y

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Science course
Breadth Requirement: Living Things and Their Environment (4)

 

ANT 432H - THE EVOLVING HUMAN SKULL

The comparative and functional anatomy of the human skull from an evolutionary perspective.  Foci include cranial anatomy, the face, mastication, diet, brains and cognition.  Includes an extensive lab component using a large collection of primate skeletons and fossil human casts.

• Exclusion: ANT 326Y

• Prerequisite: ANT 335Y

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Science course
Breadth Requirement: Living Things and Their Environment (4)

 

ANT 434H - HEALTH, DIET AND DISEASE IN THE PAST

Advanced exploration of the life histories of past populations, through the application of  palaeodietary analyses, palaeopathology and other appropriate research methods.   

• Prerequisite: ANT 334H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Science course
Breadth Requirement: Living Things and Their Environment (4)

 

ANT 435H - ANTHROPOLOGY OF CHILDHOOD AND CHILDCARE

A detailed review of the classic and recently emerging literature on the anthropology of children, childhood, and childcare. Focus is on theories for evolution of human parenting adaptations, challenges in research methodology and implications for contemporary research, practice and policy in the area of care and nutrition of infants and children.

• Prerequisite: ANT203Y1

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Living Things and Their Environment (4)

ANT 436H - PRIMATE ECOLOGY AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR

This course will provide an overview of the ecology and social behavior of extant non-human primates. Topics will include socioecology, conservation biology, biogeography, aggression and affiliation, community ecology, communication, and socio-sexual behavior. There will also be extensive discussions of methods used in collecting data on primates in the field. 

• Prerequisite: ANT 203Y 

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Science course
Breadth Requirement: Living Things and Their Environment (4)

 

ANT 438H - TOPICS IN EMERGING SCHOLARSHIP (BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY)

Taught by an advanced PhD student or postdoctoral fellow, and based on his or her doctoral research and area of expertise, this course presents a unique opportunity to explore intensively a particular Biological Anthropology topic in-depth. Topics vary from year to year.

• Prerequisite: ANT 336H1

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Science course
Breadth Requirement: Living Things and Their Environment (4)

ANT 440H – SOCIETY IN TRANSITION

Modernity, globalization, and neoliberalism have emerged as three distinct, yet connected, concepts in anthropological studies of social, cultural, political and economic changes around the world. This course critically examines the various meanings of these three concepts in order to understand their linkages and disjunctures and to use them as analytical tools to think productively about societies in transition in specific historical and ethnographic contexts.

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H and at least one area course in anthropology.

• Exclusion: ANT 440Y

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 441H - LOVE, SEX AND MARRIAGE

Beginning with anthropology’s early work on kinship, and ending with recent analyses of sex work and the globalization of ideologies of romantic love and companionate marriage, this course will investigate how emotional and sexual relationships are produced, used, conceptualized, and experienced both within particular societies and transnationally.

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H and ANT 343H

 Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 442H - ANTHROPOLOGY AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES 

The birth and proliferation of "new" technologies has stimulated considerable anthropological interest in how specific kinds of technologies are reconfiguring human cultures and relations. This course explores the relationship between technology and culture through a focus on reproductive, genetic and communications technologies. All of these technologies raise some important anthropological questions about the construction of identity, the control and distribution of resources, and the linkage between political practices and technological practices. An underlying theme of this course is an interest in how these technologies are embedded within a larger global political economy and how these technologies interface with "local" cultures and processes. Consequently, students in this course will be encouraged to explore their own relationships with new technologies and to reflect on how these relationships are culturally mediated.

Some of the specific topics to be covered in the class include pharmaceutical research and the patenting of DNA; new reproductive technologies and socio-medical construction of pregnancy and parenthood; the globalization of organ transplanting; and internet use and new forms of political practice. 

• Prerequisite: ANT 204H and a 300 level or above Society, Culture and Language course.

 Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

 

ANT 444Y - RESEARCH METHODS IN SOCIAL AND LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY

Social and linguistic anthropological approaches to research in urban settings. Methodology, field techniques and research ethics. Students must formulate and complete a field research project.

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 445H - SCIENCE AS CULTURE AND PRACTICE

This course examines science and technology from an anthropological perspective. Throughout the course, in addition to introducing major concepts of science studies, we will examine multiple “concrete things,” like computers as cultural artifacts, connected to wider social, political, economic, ideological, and cultural contexts.

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H
• Recommended Preparation: one science course

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 450H - NATURE, CULTURE AND THE CITY 

Comparative examination of human ecological adaptations, livelihood strategies, spiritual and cultural values and their relation to environmental maintenance or degradation. Explores contemporary "grass roots" environmental movements and ideologies.

• Prerequisite: ANT 204H and one 300 + level course in Society, Culture and Language. 

 Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 451H - HISTORY OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL THOUGHT: THE SEARCH FOR HUMAN UNIVERSALS

This course concentrates on original late 19th Century to mid-20th Century works by Lewis Henry Morgan, Emile Durkheim, Arnold van Gennep, Marcel Mauss, Claude Levi-Stauss and others who tried to established universal principles of social and cultural life as classificatory kinship, sacred and profane, rites of passage, reciprocity, and structuralism. 

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H1 and at least one full course equivalent in Society, Culture and Language

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 452H - ANTHROPOLOGY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

The concept of human rights in its universal claims rises fundamental questions for anthropology as it challenges a central value of the discipline: cultural relativism. Students are asked to consider epistemological and theoretical questions and case studies (e.g. claims of rights by ethnic collectivities). 

• Prerequisite: ANT 204H1 or PCJ 260Y1 or PCJ 360H1, and one 300 level course in Society, Culture and Language

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

HAJ 453H - AIDS: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE 

Seminars explore the global AIDS crisis, adopting the medical-anthropological perspective of Paul Farmer’s “Infections and Inequalities”. Varying epidemiological profiles of AIDS are placed in broader social, cultural, and political-economic frameworks. The impact of globalization and structural inequality on local cultures and lifestyles will provide an essential backdrop to the discussions. This is a joint course between Human Biology and Anthropology but it is administered by Human Biology.

• Prerequisite: 4th year status, HMB300H1/HMB301H1/HMB302H1/HMB303H1/HMB323H1 or 0.5 FCE 300-series ANT course

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science or Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 456H - QUEER ETHNOGRAPHY

This course explores, first, how and where forms of desire and sexual practice have become sites of anthropological inquiry and exemplars of particular cultural logics. Tracing, then, the “transnational turn” in the anthropology of sexuality, the course engages important debates about culture, locality, and globalization. By focusing on the transnational movement of desires, practices, and pleasures through activisms, mass media, and tourism, the course asks how sex is global and how globalization is thoroughly sexed.  Course material will stress, but not be limited to, forms of same-sex or otherwise “queer” sexualities. 

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H and any 300-level course in Society, Culture and Language
• Exclusion: ANT 343H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 457H - ANTHROPOLOGY OF MATERIAL CULTURE

The course addresses the cultural and social significance of material culture in specific cultural settings, and the role that artifacts have played in the history of anthropological thought from early typological displays to the most recent developments of material culture studies.

• Prerequisite: ANT200Y1 or ANT207H1 and a minimum of 12 FCEs

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

 

ANT 460H - GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES ON WOMEN'S HEALTH 

This fourth-year seminar examines how female gender shapes health and illness. Using case studies of sexual health, fertility and its management, substance use/abuse, mental health, and occupational/labor health risks, the course investigates the material, political, and socio-cultural factors that can put women at risk for a range of illness conditions.

• Prerequisite: ANT 343H or ANT 348H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 462H - ANTHROPOLOGY OF AFFECT

This course examines how anthropologists have studied the way that people hope, imagine, love, and despise.  Ethnography of “the intimate” realms of affect raises important questions about knowledge production and methodology as well as offering insight into how people come to act upon the world and what the human consequences of such action are.  The course will also examine how “the intimate” is socially produced and harnessed in the service of politics and culture.  Topics will include grief and its lack; dreams and activism; love and social change; memory and imperialism; sexuality and care; and violence and hope. 

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H and any 300-level course in Society, Culture and Language

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2) 

 

ANT 465H - ANTHROPOLOGY OF SUBJECTIVITY

This course explores themes such as the emergence of political and religious imaginaries; the relationship between anthropology and psychoanalysis; anthropology of transnational and diasporic subjectivity; affect and violence; subjectivity and the state.

• Prerequisite: ANT 204H and at least one other 300+ course in Society, Culture and Language

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)

 

ANT 467H - ETHNOGRAPHIES OF CONTEMPORARY SOUTH ASIA

This seminar course explores critical issues in contemporary South Asia through ethnographies centering on popular culture, globalization, gender and sexuality, activism, and development.

• Exclusion: ANT 352Y
• Prerequisite: ANT 207H, and at least one 300+ course in Society, Culture and Language.
  
• Recommended Preparation: ANT 352H1

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 468H - ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE PAPUA NEW GUINEA HIGHLANDS

 Since “first contact” in the mid-20th Century, Highlands ethnographies have played a central role in debates about kinship, systems of exchange and relations between the sexes in small scale societies.  The course examines traditional warfare, sorcery, rites of passage, myths and ideologies of conception and “the person.”

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H1 and at least one 300+ level course from Group C or Group C (i)

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 469H - UNCOMMON GROUNDS: INTER-CULTURAL INTERACTIONS IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

Using historical and contemporary examples, this seminar course explores what happens when people with different cultural backgrounds meet and interact. A variety of anthropological analytics are used to provide students with the conceptual tools to understand such encounters in their own lives.

• Prerequisite: ANT 204H1 and at least one 300+ level course from Group C or Group C (i)

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Creative and Cultural Representations (1)

ANT 472H1 - JAPAN IN GLOBAL CONTEXT: ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES (FORMERLY ANT354Y1 and ANT354H1)

This course examines how what we know as Japan and its culture has been constructed through global interactions. Topics include gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, social and family life, work and leisure, and Japanese identity amid changing global power relations.

• Prerequisite: ANT204H1 or ANT207H1

• Exclusion: ANT354Y1, ANT354H1

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

ANT 473H - ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE UNIVERSITY

Students carry out original ethnographic research projects on some aspect of life in the University of Toronto: its students, staff and faculty; its hierarchies and habits; and the everyday practices in classrooms, labs, dining halls, offices, clubs, and residence corridors. Class time is used for collective brainstorming, feedback and analysis.

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H1 and ANT 370H1

• Recommended Preparation: ANT 380H1

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

ANT 475H - READING ETHNOGRAPHY

Students read several full-length ethnographies, both classical and contemporary, and debate what makes for sound ethnographic research and writing, as well as what ethnography is and "should" be as a genre of writing and representation.
Prerequisite: ANT 207H and ANT 370H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT477H1 - TRANSNATIONAL KOREA IN AND OUTSIDE THE  PENINSULA (FORMERLY ANT377H1)

 

This course addresses reading ethnography as a tool to understand compressed and complex modernity such as Korean societies, both in and outside of the Korean peninsula. In particular, this course aims to develop students’ critical thinking on class, ethnicity, gender, family, and migration in Korea and diasporic societies of Koreans in Canada, China, Japan, and US.

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H1 and at least one 300+ course in social sciences and humanities

• Exclusion: ANT 377H1

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

ANT 480H – SPECIAL TOPICS IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH

Unique opportunity to explore a particular anthropological topic in-depth. Topics vary from year to year.

• Prerequisite: A 200+ level ANT course

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: None

 

ANT 480H1F

Special Topic for 2011-12

Ethnography of University - Prof Tania Li
A university is a microcosm of society, with its large and diverse population of students, staff and faculty; its hierarchies and habits; and the relations of power and meaning that shape everyday practices in classrooms, labs, dining halls, offices,  clubs, and residence corridors. Exclusion,  fashion, friendship, sex, competition, religion, bureaucracy, fear, faith, education  - everything happens in a university.  This course invites students to devise and carry out an individual ethnographic research project on a topic of their choice connected to, and situated within, the University of Toronto. Class time will be used for brainstorming research ideas and possible sites, and for presenting preliminary findings for collective feedback and analysis. 

The course is loosely based on the Ethnography of the University project at the University of Illinois. See the website http://www.eui.illinois.edu/ for  a rich archive of past student projects, some inspiring ideas and resources, and some potential angles for US/Canada comparison.   

Click here to view samples of student's research from Fall 2011.

 

ANT 481H – SPECIAL TOPICS IN BIOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Unique opportunity to explore in-depth a particular topic in Biological Anthropology. Topics vary from year to year.

• Prerequisite: A 200+ level ANT course

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Science course

Breadth Requirement: Living Things and Their Environment (4)

 

ARH 482H – SPECIAL TOPICS IN ARCHAEOLOGY

Unique opportunity to explore in-depth a particular topic in Archaeology. Topics vary from year to year.

• Prerequisite: A 200+ level ANT course
  

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: None

 

ANT 483H - SPECIAL TOPICS IN LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY

This course will focus on an advanced topic in Linguistic Anthropology. Topic will vary from year to year.

• Prerequisite: ANT 204H or ANT 253H or 300 level course in Society, Culture and Language

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Thought, Belief and Behaviour (2)

 

ANT 484H - SPECIAL TOPICS IN SOCIAL CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY

Unique opportunity to explore a particular Social Cultural Anthropology topic in-depth. Topics vary from year to year.

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

ANT 485H - TOPICS IN EMERGING SCHOLARSHIP (SOCIETY, CULTURE AND LANGUAGE)

Taught by an advanced PhD student or postdoctoral fellow, and based on his or her doctoral research and area of expertise, this course presents a unique opportunity to explore intensively a particular Socio-cultural or Linguistic Anthropology topic in-depth. Topics vary from year to year.

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H1 and one 300+ Society, Culture and Language course

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ANT 486H - SPECIAL TOPICS: SOCIO-CULTURAL RESEARCH SEMINAR

Unique opportunity to explore a particular Social Cultural Anthropology topic in-depth. Topics vary from year to year.

• Prerequisite: ANT 207H1 plus 1.0 300-level FCE in ANT (Society Culture and Language)

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

ANT 490Y - FIELD COURSE IN SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY 

An instructor-supervised experiential study project in social and cultural anthropology. Course takes place in an off-campus setting.

• Prerequisite: ANT 204H1 and two additional Society, Culture and Language courses
  

 Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

 

ARH 494H - TOPICS IN EMERGING SCHOLARSHIP (ARCHAEOLOGY) 

Taught by an advanced PhD student or postdoctoral fellow, and based on his or her doctoral research and area of expertise, this course presents a unique opportunity to explore intensively a particular Archaeology topic in-depth. Topics vary from year to year.

• Prerequisite: ARH305H1

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: Society and its Institutions (3)

ARH 495H - ARCHAEOLOGY RESEARCH PRACTICUM

Laboratory or practical research on an archaeological project that emphasizes methods and research design in archaeology. Students must obtain the consent of a Supervisor before enrolling. Students are required to give an oral presentation of research results to an open meeting of the Archaeology Centre at the conclusion of the course.  Application must be made to the Anthropology Department.

• Prerequisite: A minimum of 14 credits, permission of Supervisor and Undergraduate Coordinator.
• Exclusion: ANT 497Y1
• Recommended Preparation: ARH 305H1, ARH 312Y1
  

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: None

 

ANT 497Y1Y, 498H1H/Y, 499H1H - INDEPENDENT RESEARCH COURSE

Supervised independent research on a topic agreed on by the student and supervisor before enrolment in the course. Open in exceptional circumstances to advanced students with a strong background in Anthropology. Course Supervisor must be a member of the Anthropology faculty. Application for enrolment should be made to the Department in the preceding term. A maximum of one year of Independent Research Courses is allowed per program. 

• Prerequisite: A minimum of 10 credits, permission of Supervisor and Undergraduate Coordinator.

Distribution Requirement Status: This is a Social Science course
Breadth Requirement: None

 

Please send suggestions or corrections to Josie Alaimo

 

 

Last updated: May 8, 2013