Anthropology Courses | 2026-2027 Graduate Catalog | SIU

Current topics in biological evolution and variation, including the theoretical and methodological background to each. Topics will be drawn from the four major areas of physical anthropology: genetics and evolutionary theory, primate studies, human fossil record and human variation. Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

Overview to enable students to identify, describe and understand the theories, methods and goals of linguistic anthropology. Emphasis is placed on the relationships of language to culture and cognition from an anthropological perspective. Topics include language origins, descriptive linguistics, language and cognition, synchronic and diachronic variation, language use in cultural context, discourse and pragmatics, writing systems and literacy. Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

Overview of the currents and controversies in anthropological archaeology in their historical and theoretical context. Topics include history of archaeological theory, explanation in archaeology, limitations of the archaeological record and archaeological approaches to the study of cultural variation. Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

This course is designed to enable students to identify, define and critically understand the major theories and methods of contemporary sociocultural anthropology. The course is organized into three general parts, reflecting broad areas of theoretical inquiry which have expanded most rapidly in anthropology since 1960: (1) ecological, economic and other materialist approaches; (2) cognitive, symbolic and other interpretive approaches; and (3) recent and ongoing research strategies, including critical and historical approaches. Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

Covers history of pre-20th century social theory and a survey of 20th century theories in socio-cultural anthropology. Topics include: Enlightenment social theory, social evolutionism, racial formalism and the Boasian critique, relativism and functionalism; cultural materialism, cultural ecology, neo-evolutionism, ecological anthropology, structuralism, ethnoscience, interpretive anthropology, practice theory, post-modernism, and gender theory. Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

This practicum provides anthropology PhD students actual classroom experience in a lower division anthropology course. Students will be involved in the teaching of designated courses. Faculty will meet with practicum members on a regular basis, critique their lectures, and together with them work out problems and plan future directions of the course. Graded S/U only. Restricted to anthropology doctoral students only.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as ANTH 403, AFR 403, & AFR 503) This course provides students with an anthropological perspective on the foodways of the Black Atlantic. The class will be divided into three sections. The first looks at the history of West African cuisine. The second focuses on how both African culinary practices and structural racism shaped Black foodways in the United States. The third addresses how Black chefs have contributed to national cuisines in the Caribbean and Latin America. Credit hours: 3.

Credit Hours: 3

This course is designed to familiarize students with the experience of colonialism and the political, social, cultural implications of it. The analysis will not be limited to the study of the colonial period, but it will examine the complexities of contemporary post-colonial societies and cultures.

Credit Hours: 3

Seminar studying issues concerning the prehistoric and historic inhabitants of North America north of Mexico. From year to year, the precise areal and topical coverage will vary, as will the instructors. Students should consult department about subjects to be offered.

Credit Hours: 3

Basic concepts of anthropology are used to interpret the imaginary worlds of science fiction. Fictional alien cultures are examined to see how features of human biology, language, social organization, technology, etc. are patterned after or are different from known human cultures. How do science fiction and anthropology both call on the imagination of otherness to critique the present? These themes will be explored through a selection of short stories, novels and films.

Credit Hours: 3

An examination of the relationship of past and present human populations in the context of their natural and social environments.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as WGSS 510) How do humans become male and female in different societies? Can men become women and women become men? What other gender possibilities exist? Is male dominance universal? What are the sources of male and female power and resistance? Do women have a separate culture? What are the relationships between gender, militarism and war? These and other questions will be examined in cross-cultural perspective.

Credit Hours: 3

An examination of recent approaches to popular culture, material culture and consumption in anthropology. Special topical focus will include sports, television and movies, food and shopping. The course will be organized around several fieldwork projects in the Carbondale community.

Credit Hours: 3

This course examines the risks that any anthropological research poses, both in fieldwork and writing, as well as questions and dilemmas that any social scientist should be aware of before getting involved in any research practice.

Credit Hours: 3

In this course we will explore all aspects of the social uses and symbolic meanings we attach to food and eating. How do we use food to make friends, to make enemies, and to make ourselves? What is changing in our food consumption patterns? What are some of the politics and ethics involved in producing and marketing food? What is the significance of eating out? How do we analyze the smell and taste of food cross-culturally?

Credit Hours: 3

From year to year, the areal and topical coverage of this course will vary, as will the instructors. Students should consult the department about subjects to be covered.

Credit Hours: 2-3

Focus on research strategies involving the systematic exploration, documentation and analytic description of social settings, interactions, meanings, lifeworlds and texts. Includes discussion of field observation, depth interviewing, oral histories/narratives, case studies, biographies and life histories, focus group interviewing, content analysis of written and visual data, historical/archival investigations, among other approaches.

Credit Hours: 3

Seminars in varying topics in archaeology. Students should consult department about subjects to be covered.

Credit Hours: 3

Advanced seminar on theoretical perspectives in the social sciences and humanities. Topical focus will vary from year-to-year. Course may be taken again as topics vary. Extensive readings are drawn from a wide range of sources.

Credit Hours: 3

Intensive analysis of a limited set of monographs organized around a theoretical problem or set of problems.

Credit Hours: 3-9

(Same as POLS 518, SOC 518) Emphasis is on the development of teaching skills and pedagogical knowledge for instructors in the social sciences. Students will explore different perspectives on developing syllabi, presenting material, creating assignments, grading, and handling classroom obstacles. Students will consider the issues of race, class, and gender in the classroom and discuss the future of online teaching. Students will gain hands-on teaching experience, develop a teaching portfolio with a syllabus, create course exercises, and cultivate a teaching philosophy.

Credit Hours: 3

From year to year, the areal and topical coverage of this course will vary, as will the instructors. Students should consult the department about subjects to be covered.

Credit Hours: 2-3

(Same as WGSS 525) This seminar explores a broad range of theoretical readings centering on the human body. Once the province of medical science and certain schools of philosophy, recent research in the social sciences and the humanities position "the body" as a primary site of socialization, gendering, social control.

Credit Hours: 3

An advanced seminar in anthropological approaches to gender. Theoretical and topical approaches will vary from semester to semester. In any given semester topics may include: power, agency, ethnographies of gender, the construction of masculinity/femininity, gender diversity, gender and the state, gender and everyday. Prerequisite: ANTH 500D or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

An advanced seminar in anthropological approaches to culture and materiality. Theoretical and topical approaches will vary depending on the instructor and semester. In any given semester topics may include: Human and non-human agency, the social and the technological, science studies, production and consumption, human-environment relations, the role of the senses in culture, and knowledge, skill and practice. Prerequisite: ANTH 500D or consent of the instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

Topics will be drawn from any dealing with the fossil and/or contextual evidence for human evolution (e.g., The Place of Neandertals in Human Evolution; Taphonomy and Paleoecology; Origins of Bipedalism). From semester to semester, the topical coverage will vary, as will the instructor. Students should consult the department about subjects to be covered.

Credit Hours: 3-9

Detailed study of the early cultures of North America. Emphasis on the evolutionary cultural development of North America.

Credit Hours: 3

Seminars will focus on theoretical and methodological issues relating to the excavation and analysis of human skeletal remains. From semester to semester, The topical coverage will vary, as will the instructor. Students should consult the department about subjects to be covered.

Credit Hours: 3

Topics will be drawn from any of the areas of biological variation among humans (e.g., Comparative Epidemiology, Human Sociobiology, Demography and Paleodemography, or Multivariate Pattern Recognition). From semester to semester, the topical coverage will vary, as will the instructor. Students should consult the department about subjects to be covered.

Credit Hours: 3-9

Seminars will be constructed around various theoretical and/or substantive issues in current biological evolutionary theory (e.g., Issues in Paleobiology, Evolution At and Above the Species Level or Phylogenetic Systematics). From semester to semester, the topical coverage will vary, as will the instructor. Students should consult the department about subjects to be covered.

Credit Hours: 3-9

Topics will vary among theoretical and substantive issues in primate behavior and ecology (e.g., Primate Social Structure, Socioecology, Diet, Locomotion and Foraging Strategies, or Reproductive Strategies in Primates). From semester to semester, the topical coverage will vary, as will the instructor. Students should consult the department about subjects to be covered.

Credit Hours: 3-9

Topics will vary among substantive (taxonomic), theoretical, and contextual issues in primate evolution (e.g., Catarrhine Evolution, Anthropoid Origins, Molecular vs. Fossil Evidence for Hominoid Phylogeny or The Role of Body Size and Allometry in Primate Evolution). From semester to semester, the topical coverage will vary, as will instructor.

Credit Hours: 3-9

An advanced consideration of the fossil evidence for human evolution and an evaluation of the various theories regarding the course of human evolution.

Credit Hours: 3

This course will provide an ecological, behavioral, geological, geographic, and theoretical context from which to understand the evolutionary history of modern humans.

Credit Hours: 3

Detailed study of the early culture of ancient Egypt with emphasis on the evolutionary cultural development of Egypt.

Credit Hours: 3

Being durable, abundant, and full of information about food, social customs, styles, and even ideology, pottery provides a wealth of information about past societies. This course covers the major aspects of pottery analysis, including studies of raw materials, production techniques, function, and exchange. The course is partly lecture, partly lab-based.

Credit Hours: 3

This course provides an introduction to lithic analysis in archaeology. Students will be introduced to technological and functional analyses, typological studies, use-wear analysis, debitage analysis, and related subjects. The focus will be on chipped stone, but ground stone will also be considered. The overall goal is to show how lithic analysis can address broader anthropological questions.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as LING 544) Survey of major approaches to the analysis of spoken or written discourse including speech act theory, pragmatics, interactional sociolinguistics, ethnography of communication, conversation analysis, variation analysis and critical discourse analysis.

Credit Hours: 3

From year to year, the areal and topical coverage of this course will vary, as will the instructors. Students should consult the department about subjects to be covered.

Credit Hours: 2-3

(Same as LING 551) An investigation of language use in context; this incorporates both social and psychological aspects of language use. Topics to be covered in this course include speech acts; implicature; conversation analysis; and the acquisition of communicative competence by both first and second language learners. Prerequisite: ANTH 500B or LING 505.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as PLB 554, ZOOL 554) Advanced topics in evolutionary biology including genetics & development, evolutionary ecology, phylogeny, paleontology, biogeography, population genetics, molecular ecology, speciation, molecular evolution, and macroevolution. Topics will vary each semester. Seminar format group discussions and student presentations. Graded S/U. Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 1

(Same as ZOOL 555) An overview of the organization and operation of modern collections involving animal, plant, and microbial specimens. Topics include specimen preparation and curation, collection databases, specimen-collection laws, and field-collection techniques. Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

This course will cover special topics in Biological Anthropology. Topics will vary between offerings and may include special or current issues in forensic research, human variation, genetics and evolution, primate behavior, ecology, conservation, or human evolution. (May be repeated once for a maximum of 6 hours).

Credit Hours: 3

Advanced study of the behavior and ecology of living nonhuman primates. The course will cover the geographic distribution and basic ecological features of nonhuman primates and the relationships between resource distribution, social organization, mating system and behavior which will help to reconstruct the evolution of nonhuman and human primate sociality.

Credit Hours: 3

This course is an introduction to basic methods of quantitative methods and data science. We will learn some of the key data science tools used in day-to-day anthropology which are also becoming increasingly valued and popular in a wide variety of other research areas and professions. This course in combination with Ed Psych 506 or another approved substitute satisfies a doctoral tool requirement. Does not count as a bioanthropology elective toward the M.A. degree.

Credit Hours: 3

This lab-based course is for the advanced student interested in the analysis of the human skeleton. An intensive study of human skeletal anatomy, the methods used in the identification and analysis of skeletal remains in archaeological contexts, and osteological evidence for disease, diet, and trauma in past populations.

Credit Hours: 3

(Same as MBBS 556, PLB 556, and ZOOL 556) An advanced introduction to modern methods of phylogenetic inference, emphasizing both theoretical background concepts and numerical approaches to data analysis. Topics include properties of morphological and molecular characters, models of character evolution, tree estimation procedures, and tree-based testing of evolutionary hypotheses. Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

Critical to the successful forensic anthropological analysis of human remains is an understanding of the events and processes that affect decomposition of biological tissues. This course is designed to teach students about a variety of processes affecting decomposition of human tissues, including (but not limited to) animal scavenging, insect activity, environmental conditions, personal characteristics of the deceased and human vectors (dismemberment, burning, burial, etc.).

Credit Hours: 3

From year to year, the areal and topical coverage of this course will vary, as will the instructors. Students should consult the department about subjects to be covered.

Credit Hours: 2-3

From year to year, the areal and topical coverage of this course will vary, as will the instructors. Students should consult the department about subjects to be covered.

Credit Hours: 2-3

Seminar in definition, measurement and description of data in relation to archaeological research problems. From year to year, the topical coverage of this course will vary, as will the instructors. Students should consult the department about subjects to be offered. Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 3-12

Intensive examination of the prehistory, cultural history, and modern cultures of peoples in Europe.

Credit Hours: 3

Supervised training in the preparation of anthropological research designs. Requirements will include completed research proposals involving the relation of data to theory and results in the general sub-areas of archaeological, physical, social and linguistic anthropology. Coverage will vary. Students should consult the department.

Credit Hours: 2-3

(Same as ZOOL 580) The Evolution Discussion Group meets weekly throughout the year to discuss current evolutionary literature and the research of participants. All students and faculty with an interest in evolutionary biology are welcomed to participate.

Credit Hours: 1

From year to year, the areal and topical coverage of this course will vary, as will the instructor. Students should consult the department about subjects to be covered.

Credit Hours: 2-3

This internship is intended to introduce students to the management of archaeological collections through hands-on work with materials, typically those housed at the Center for Archaeological Investigations? curation facility. Students will be exposed to a variety of issues that affect local, state, and national curation facilities such as conservation, preservation, accessibility, accountability, and ethical concerns. Internship projects range from collections documentation and research to object digitalization and other special curation projects. Special approval is needed from the instructor to register.

Credit Hours: 3-9

Guided readings to cover special topics and fill gaps in the student's specialized anthropological background in preparation for PH.D. candidacy examination, to be arranged with department. Graded S/U. Restricted to doctoral students only. Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 1-3

Selected advanced topics in anthropology. Topics vary and are announced in advance. May be repeated (as the topic varies) for a maximum of 9 hours. Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 3-9

This provides a supervised experience in a professional setting, generally entailing supervisory, editorial, and/or administrative duties. Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 3

Anthropological methods of inquiry and documentation of cultures and habitat together with appropriate instruction in the technique of field work such as photography and sound recording. Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 3-6

Advanced, hands-on training in the field of archaeological method and theory. Graduate students will have extended training in supervisory and documentation tasks and roles, in addition to other field training. Students will be expected to be in residence at the field school headquarters off campus for the entire field season. Prerequisite: ANTH 496 or consent of instructor.

Credit Hours: 6

To be arranged with department. Graded S/U only.

Credit Hours: 1-12

This course is restricted to students to be accelerated from the M.A. to the Ph.D. program (at the discretion of the faculty). Its purpose is to allow the student, under the guidance of his/her major advisor, to complete the research paper and other requirements of an M.A. degree. Graded S/U only. Special approval needed from the department and departmental offer of accelerated entry to Ph.D. program in Anthropology.

Credit Hours: 1-9

Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 1-9

Special approval needed from the instructor.

Credit Hours: 1-12

For those graduate students who have not finished their degree programs and who are in the process of working on their dissertation, thesis, or research paper. The student must have completed a minimum of 24 hours of dissertation research, or the minimum thesis, or research hours before being eligible to register for this course. Concurrent enrollment in any other course is not permitted. Graded S/U or DEF only.

Credit Hours: 1

Must be a Postdoctoral Fellow. Concurrent enrollment in any other course is not permitted.

Credit Hours: 1