Anthropology 697BC - ST-Bio-cultural Anthropology

Anthropology has long emphasized an integrative, holistic approach. Biocultural anthropology provides one example of this integration by examining the interrelationships among society, culture, and biology to better understand the human experience. The purpose of this class is to review past and current developments in biocultural anthropology, and to explore various lines of inquiry that might link biology and culture in new and interesting ways. A primary focus of a biocultural approach is to understand how lived realities become embodied as human biology, and biocultural anthropology draws on evolutionary, ecological, political-economic and cognitive perspectives to examine this process. We will use a biocultural approach to explore a range of issues linking social inequalities and human biology, including: health inequalities, environmental problems, armed conflict, racial and gender discrimination, nutrition transition and obesity, and other dimensions of vulnerability, stress and resilience in human groups.