Courses

The Department of Anthropology offers graduate courses in Evolutionary and Sociocultural Anthropology.

2022-2023 Graduate Courses

This information is for reference only. Please note that these courses are subject to change depending on teaching needs. For the most up-to-date listings, please see the Registrar's Office Schedule Builder or Class Search Tool

Fall 2022 Graduate Courses 

COURSEINSTRUCTORCRNDAYSTIMEROOM

ANT 200: History of Anthropology

Caillaud

53243 TR 9-10:20    Young 224
ANT 201: Critical Readings in Ethnography Elhaik 22218 W 3:10-6 Young 224
ANT 202: History & Theory of Biological Anthropology  Weaver 22219 W 9:30-12:20 Young 210
ANT 210: Aspects of Culture Structure de la Cadena 22220 T 3:10-6 Young 224 (course cancelled)
ANT 210: Aspects of Culture Structure Mojaddedi 22221 T 2:10-5 Teaching &Learning Complex 3212
ANT 254: Current Issues in Primate Sociobiology Isbell 52971 W 12:10-3 Young 224

ANT 270: Anthropology Colloquium Seminar (E-Wing)

Isbell 22224

M

4:10-5

Young 210

ANT 270: Anthropology Colloquium Seminar (S-Wing) Giordano 22224 M 4:10-5 Young 224

Winter 2023 Graduate Courses

COURSEINSTRUCTORCRNDAYSTIMEROOM
ANT 204: Contemporary Issues in Anthropological Theory Zhang 45348 M 10-12:50 pm Young 224
ANT 203: History & Theory of Archaeological  Darwent 45347 R 10-12:50 pm Young 224
ANT 206: Research Design & Method in Social Anthropology Srinivas 12287 T 12:10-3 pm Young 224
ANT 210: Aspects of Culture Structure Dumit 45345 W 2:10-5 pm SocSci 1246
ANT 210: Aspects of Culture Structure Giordano 45349 W 12:10-3 pm Young 224
ANT 270: Anthropology Colloquium Seminar (E-Wing) Isbell 12290 M 4:10-5 Young 210
ANT 270: Anthropology Colloquium Seminar (S-Wing) Girdano 12291 M 4:10-5 Young 224

Spring 2023 Graduate Courses

COURSEINSTRUCTORCRNDAYSTIMEROOM
ANT 210: Aspects of Culture Structure Sawyer 32327 W 2:10-5 pm Young 224
ANT 210: Aspects of Culture Structure Choy 32328 R 3:10-6 pm Young 224
ANT 208: Writing & Research Design in Evolutionary Anthropology Henn TBD W 11-1:50 pm Young 224
ANT 261: Modeling the evolution of Social Behavior Moya 62529 M 9-11:50 am Young 224
ANT 270: Anthropology Colloquium Seminar (E-Wing) Isbell 32331 M 4:10-5 Young 210
ANT 270: Anthropology Colloquium Seminar (S-Wing) Giordano 32332 M 4:10-5 Young 224

 

Course Descriptions

All Anthropology course descriptions are available in the UC Davis General Catalog.

Evolutionary Anthropology Course Descriptions

200. History of Anthropology (4)

Lecture/discussion—2 hours; term paper. Historical development of socio-cultural theory within anthropology, from mid-19th to mid-20th Centuries. Focus on original theory texts in context of historical developments in the field as a whole. Offered in alternate years.

202. History and Theory of Biological Anthropology (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. History of thought in biological anthropology and analysis of major theoretical problems in the field. Suggested for all first-year graduate students lacking intensive preparation in biological anthropology.—Weaver

203. History and Theory of Archaeology (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Generally restricted to graduate students; outstanding undergraduates with extensive training in archaeology with consent of instructor. History of archaeology and archaeological theory and analysis of archaeological research methodology.—F. (F.) Bettinger

216. Problems in Archeological Method (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Techniques for analyzing archeological data; application to various prehistoric cultures. May be repeated for credit with consent of instructor.—Darwent, Steele

217. Quantitative Modeling in Archaeology (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; term paper. Examination of the nature of archaeological data with a focus on the quantitative and statistical techniques available to model, analyze, display, and make sense of such data. Offered irregularly.—Eerkens

218. Topics in New World Prehistory (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Advanced study on current problems in New World Prehistory and archaeology. May be repeated for credit only if material is unique for that student and with consent of instructor. May be repeated for credit. Offered irregularly.—Darwent, Eerkens

219. Topics in Old World Prehistory (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Advanced study on current problems in Old World prehistory and archaeology. May be repeated for credit only if material is unique for that student and with consent of instructor. May be repeated for credit. Offered irregularly.—Steele, Zwyns

250. Behavioral Ecology of Primates (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: course 154A (may be taken concurrently) or the equivalent, graduate standing. Concepts, issues, and hypotheses in primate behavioral ecology, with emphasis on the social and ecological determinants and consequences of variation in social organization for individuals. Offered in alternate years.—Isbell

252. Human Evolution Seminar (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: course 152 or the equivalent; consent of instructor. Study of selected topics in human evolutionary studies. Each year course will focus on one or more of the following: molecular evolution, primate evolutionary biology, Tertiary hominoids, Australopithecus, Homo erectus, archaic Homo sapiens, brain evolution. May be repeated for credit.—S. (S.) Weaver, Zwyns

253. Seminar in Human Biology (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: course 153, 157, or consent of instructor. Study of selected topics in human biology. May be repeated for credit when topics vary. Offered irregularly.—W. (W.) D. G. Smith

254. Current Issues in Primate Sociobiology (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: course 154B or the equivalent. Analysis of primate behavior, with particular emphasis on preparation for field studies. May be repeated for credit when topic differs.—Crofoot, Isbell

256. Primate Conservation Biology (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: course 154, graduate standing or upper division undergraduate with consent of instructor. Class size limited to 10 students. Application of understanding of primate biology to conservation of primates and their habitat. Topics include evolutionary anthropology, behavioral ecology, biogeography, macroecology, population biology, and socio-ecology of primates. May be repeated one time for credit if term paper differs. (S/U grading only.) Offered irregularly.

261. Modeling the Evolution of Social Behavior (4)

Lecture—3 hours; extensive problem solving. Prerequisite: Mathematics 16C or the equivalent or consent of instructor. Tools and topics in modeling the evolution of social behavior in humans and other animals. Game theory, basic population genetics, animal conflict, altruism, reciprocity, signaling, and group selection.

262. Evolution and Human Behavior (4)

Discussion—3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: graduate standing or consent of instructor. Exploration of the links between behavioral ecological theory and human cultural variation, focusing on reproduction, marriage, parental investment and family structure; implications of evolutionary theory for social organization in human communities, historical and contemporary. Offered in alternate years.—Borgerhoff, Mulder

263. Human Applications of Foraging Theory (4)

Discussion—3 hours; laboratory—3 hours. Foraging theory models and their use in ethnographic and archaeological analyses of human behavior, with a focus on hunter-gathers and resource selection, patch use, population and habitat, central places, sharing, stochastic processes, population dynamics, and conservation behavior. Not open for credit to students who have completed course 258. Offered irregularly.

270. Anthropology Colloquium Seminar (1)

Seminar—1 hour. Reports and discussions of recent advances in the four subfields of anthropology. To be presented by guest speakers. May be repeated two times for credit. (S/U grading only.)—F, W, S. (F, W, S.)


291. Advanced Topics in Human Behavioral Ecology (4)

Discussion—3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: course 261, 262, or 263, or comparable experience in anthropology or related disciplines and consent of instructor. Topically focused, critical discussion of current and emerging research in the field of human behavioral ecology, giving special attention to theory, concepts, models, and methods for the evolutionary analysis of ethnographic and archaeological evidence. May be repeated one time for credit if topic differs.

Sociocultural Anthropology Course Descriptions

201. Critical Readings in Ethnography (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: graduate student in Anthropology or consent of instructor. Critical readings of selected ethnographies that examine a wide range of important topics and analytical issues in social and cultural anthropology. Emphasis on how and why ethnographic writing has changed over time and its relationship with contemporary theoretical explorations.—F. (F.) Zhang

204. Contemporary Issues in Anthropological Theory (4)

Seminar—3 hours. Prerequisite: ANT2; ANT 137; or consent of the instructor. Advanced consideration of fundamental issues in anthropological theory. Emphasis on critical examination of major contemporary debates between proponents of competing theories.

206. Research Design and Method in Social Anthropology (5)

Seminar—4 hours. Prerequisite: consent of instructor. Limited enrollment. Formulation of research problems and preparation of research proposals; relationships between theory and method, funding, pre-fieldwork preparations, entering the community, field research techniques, and problems of ethics; intensive work on proposal writing. May be repeated one time for credit.—S. (S.)

207. Ethnographic Writing (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: courses 137, 201, or the equivalent. Relationship between conducting participant observation of others and writing it up, emphasizing the processual rift between the reality of fieldwork and its written representation. Study of various literary genres and textual strategies used in cultural anthropology. May be repeated for credit.

210. Aspects of Culture Structure (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Analysis of various phases of culture, such as religion, economics, law, and folklore. May be repeated for credit when topic differs.—F, W, S. (F, W, S.)

211. Advanced Topics in Cultural Ecology (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: Environmental Science and Policy/Anthropology 133, graduate standing in Anthropology or Ecology. Topics of current analytical and methodological importance in cultural ecology. Examination of general issues in cultural ecology through study of human response to and influence on climate. (Same course as Ecology 211.)

212. Political Ecology (4)

Lecture/discussion—3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: graduate standing or consent of instructor. Interdisciplinary seminar evaluating contributions from ecological anthropology, political economy, cultural constructivism, postmodernism, and feminism towards development of theories of political ecology. Historical relationships between local/global power structures, environmental degradation, and resistance movements. Case studies of desertification, deforestation, mining, conservation, development.

220. Field Course in Linguistics (4)

Seminar—2 hours; laboratory—2 hours. Prerequisite: courses 110, 111. Techniques of eliciting, recording, and analyzing; work with a native speaker.

221. Rural Transformation in Postcolonial Societies (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: courses 223, 265, or consent of instructor. Problems of rural transformation arising out of political and economic interaction between national elites and rural regional and local populations under varying conditions of induced change in postcolonial societies. Attention will be given to the implications of this interaction for rapid economic growth. May be repeated for credit.

222. Cities and Citizenship (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: graduate standing; consent of instructor. Explores the nature of modern cities, urban socioeconomic life, and urban culture and politics from an anthropological perspective.—F. (F.) Zhang

223. Economic Anthropology (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: course 122 or consent of instructor. Selected current methodological and theoretical problems in the analysis of nonindustrial economic systems.

224. Problems in Comparative Religion (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Advanced study of current problems in the anthropological study of religion.

225. State and Nation in the Modern World (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. A presentation of current anthropological theories of the origins and nature of the modern nation-state in both the First and Third Worlds, with special reference to state ideology (nationalism) and forms of control.

226. Consciousness and Resistance (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: completion of first-year graduate work or consent of instructor. Consideration of approaches to the study of social inequality, and responses of subordinated groups. Emphasis on situating approaches to contemporary social theory, concrete research problems, and political strategies. Topics: formation of consciousness and identity; collective action, accommodation to frontal resistance.

228. Culture and Power (4)

Seminar—3 hours; extensive writing. Prerequisite: graduate standing or consent of instructor. Exploration of one of the core paradigms within contemporary anthropological inquiry, "culture and power." Focus on how distinct theoretical perspectives—Marxism, post-Marxism, structuralism, post-structuralism, and feminism—have examined the mutually constitutive nature of culture and power.—W. (W.) Sawyer

229. Gender, Identity, and Self (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Intersections of gender, identity, and selfhood cross-culturally and historically. How the self is feminized and masculinized, and interfaces with sexual, race, class, work, national, minority, and majority identities under different historical, cultural, and social structural conditions. May be repeated for credit when topic differs.—W. (W.) Joseph

230. Family Systems and Reproduction: Theory and Comparisons (4)

Lecture—1.5 hours; seminar—1.5 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: graduate standing in one of the social sciences including History. Comparative examination of family systems in historical context and of reproductive behaviors and strategizing. A major theme is how family-system norms specify the relative desirability of differently configured offspring sets. Cases are drawn from Western Europe and South and East Asia.

232. Political Movements (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: completion of first-year graduate work recommended. An interdisciplinary approach to political movements of protest, reform, and revolution emphasizing historical comparison and evaluation of major theoretical approaches including world systems, resource mobilization, state and culture, rational choice, moral economy, social class and gender.

239. Problems in African Society and Culture (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Diachronic analyses of traditional institutions in sub-Saharan Africa.

241. Topics in North American Ethnology (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Advanced study on current problems in North American ethnography and culture history. May be repeated for credit with consent of instructor.

245. Ethnology of Northern and Central Asia (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: a reading knowledge of German, Russian, Chinese, or Japanese. Lectures on the culture aboriginally found north of the Caucasus-Korea line. Supervised study of the primary and secondary sources. Work with informants when available.

246. Ethnology of Europe (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: reading knowledge of a European language other than English. Supervised study of the primary and secondary sources dealing with the ethnography and ethnology of the peoples of Europe. Emphasis upon folk, peasant, and minority groups.

248. Topics in Chinese Culture and Society (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Prerequisite: graduate standing in the social sciences, history, or the humanities. Selected topics in the anthropology of Chinese society. Focus on one or more of the following topics: state-society dynamics, family and gender, city formation and urban life, social movement, labor politics, and religion and ideology in Chinese society. May be repeated for credit when topic differs.

265. Language, Performance, and Power (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Restricted to graduate standing or consent of instructor. Exploration of the intersection between linguistic and social theories in the language-state relation and the performance of identity. Ideological sources of language differentiation; nation-building and linguistic difference. Political economic, sociolinguistic, and ethnographic approaches to understanding linguistic inequality. (Same course as Linguistics 265.) Offered in alternate years.—Shibamoto-Smith

270. Anthropology Colloquium Seminar (1)

Seminar—1 hour. Reports and discussions of recent advances in the four subfields of anthropology. To be presented by guest speakers. May be repeated two times for credit. (S/U grading only.)—F, W, S. (F, W, S.)

292. Seminar in Linguistic Anthropology (4)

Seminar—3 hours; term paper. Selected topics in linguistic anthropology. May be repeated for credit when topic differs.

Research and Teaching Courses

298. Group Study (1-4)

(S/U grading only.)

299. Research (1-12)

(S/U grading only.)

299D. Dissertation Research (1-12)

(S/U grading only.)

Professional

390. Teaching Anthropology (4)

Seminar—3 hours; practice—1 hour. Prerequisite: graduate standing in Anthropology or closely related discipline. Intellectual and practical elements of college teaching in the field of Anthropology, from curriculum design and the syllabus through grading and course evaluations, including classroom and information technology methods, and problems and rewards of teaching in higher education. Offered in alternate years.

396. Teaching Assistant Training Practicum (1-4)

Prerequisite: graduate standing. May be repeated for credit. (S/U grading only.)—F, W, S.