Anthropology

Piracy has been part of human commerce probably as long as humans have traversed the seas for trade. This course examines the social, political, and economic aspects of piracy in human history with a special emphasis on the Americas. We ask such questions as: What was the structure of democracy on a pirate ship? What about women? What is the difference between a pirate and a privateer? What is pirate code and did it ever exist? What was daily life like for pirates? Who became pirates and who didn't?

All primates live in ecological communities with other species, and are therefore part of a broader ecological system that includes other primate, animal, and plant species. In this course, we will explore the various interactions that primates have with these other species and the various roles that they play in the larger ecological community.

Course topics will include:

This course examines human growth and development as a bio-cultural process that demands integrated analysis.  This course uses a scientific approach, drawing on evolutionary biology, genetics, neuroscience, physiology, nutritional sciences, and medicine.  The course has three main sections:

• Section 1

Builds the course framework by providing an historical overview of growth studies, followed by discussion of the scientific method and evolutionary theory, especially the concepts of adaptation and life history.

This course examines key issues related to human biological variation, with a focus on human adaptation and evolutionary medicine. This course examines genetic and phenotypic variation in contemporary human populations. It uses an evolutionary biocultural framework to understand how adaptation to various ecological stressors (e.g., temperature, solar radiation, altitude, and nutrition) promotes human biological diversity.

This course will focus on the archaeologically derived culture history of Oregon Native Americans. Lectures will be organized by region, integrating archaeological evidence with environmental and ethnographic records. Throughout, attention will also be given to the means and the methodology by which archaeologists develop the interpretations offered. The course will be taught by the director and research staff of the Oregon State Museum of Anthropology and will highlight archaeological investigations conducted by the Museum, supplementing lectures with guest presentations and films.

The course aims to introduce scientific analysis of archaeological data on the origins of agriculture and domestication to non-science major students. The course covers up-to-date theories and perspectives on why/how some foragers became farmers in the past, the mechanisms involved in the spread of domesticated species to the world from primary areas of origin, and the social, cultural, environmental consequences associated with adopting agriculture in multiple locations around the world.

This class is an advanced introduction to archaeology and is concerned with methods of doing archaeology, both in the field and in the laboratory, and the ideas used by archaeologists to interpret the past. This class is an advanced introduction to archaeology and is concerned with methods of doing archaeology, both in the field and in the laboratory, and the ideas used by archaeologists to interpret the past. It builds on and complements ANTH 150.

This class will answer the following questions:

This course will introduce you to the peoples and cultures that make up modern South Asia – India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka - and to the contemporary problems that mark that part of the world in a global context. The purpose is to go beyond the superficial representations of South Asia as a timeless "object" of study, and understand how South Asian cultures and identities are shaped by colonialism, nationalism and globalization.

For the vast majority of human existence survival rested solely upon what could be acquired through the hunting, fishing, or gathering of wild resources, and the fundamental qualities that make us human were shaped by the recurrent features of the physical and social environments our ancestors encountered as foragers. To fully understand what it means to be human, one must therefore understand our foraging legacy.