Throughout the semester, we will explore in depth the interaction of biological, social, and cultural factors in determining human diet, nutrition, and health. Course content will include discussions about the various approaches to nutritional anthropology, nutritional basics, food behaviors, methods of dietary and nutritional assessment, and a series of case studies addressing causes and consequences to nutritional problems across the world. Major anthropological contributions will be highlighted, along with works from nutrition, epidemiology, and other fields.

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Not available at this time

This course introduces the ever-evolving field of Psychological Anthropology through an exploration of culture and mental health. Are psychiatric disease categories and treatment protocols universally applicable? How can we come to understand the lived experience of mental illness and abnormality? And how can we trace the roots of such experience ? whether through brain circuitry, cultural practices, forms of power, or otherwise?

The history of Native North Americans from their arrival on this continent, sometime between 80,000 and 12,000 years ago, up until their initial contact with Europeans. Archaeology as a source for the telling of history sensitive to voices often excluded from the written record. (Gen.Ed. HS, DU)

Cross-cultural and comparative perspectives on visual arts. Art in different cultures in relation to economic, social, and religious contexts, and as a universal human manifestation. (Gen.Ed. AT)

This course explores scientific and technical systems that permeate our lives. By way of facial recognition, IQ tests, vaccine protocols, hydroelectric dams, and other systems, we will focus on the all-too-human questions embedded in processes of scientific innovation and technological development. Together, we will address the following: What makes something a scientific fact? Who benefits and who is harmed by emerging platforms? How do social, political, and economic inequities shape technology and vice-versa? Can we engineer alternate futures? There are no prerequisites.

The study of human/environmental interactions. Emphasis on biological and cultural responses by contemporary human groups to pervasive environmental problems. Examples from mountains, grasslands, deserts, and tropical forests. (Gen.Ed. SB, DG)

The roots of racism and sexism and the issues they raise. The cultural, biological, and social contexts of race and gender and examination of biological variation, genetic determinism, human adaptation, and the bases of human behavior. (Gen Ed SB, DU)

The roots of racism and sexism and the issues they raise. The cultural, biological, and social contexts of race and gender and examination of biological variation, genetic determinism, human adaptation, and the bases of human behavior. (Gen Ed SB, DU)