Courses

The evolution of humankind is explored through the fossil record, studies of the biological differences among current human populations, and a comparison with our closest relatives, the primates. This course investigates the roots of human biology and behavior with an evolutionary framework.

Full details for ANTHR 1300 - Human Evolution: Genes, Behavior, and the Fossil Record

This course will introduce students to the meaning and significance of forms of cultural diversity for the understanding of contemporary issues. Drawing from films, videos, and selected readings, students will be confronted with different representational forms that portray cultures in various parts of the world, and they will be asked to examine critically their own prejudices as they influence the perception and evaluation of cultural differences. We shall approach cultures holistically, assuming the inseparability of economies, kinship, religion, and politics, as well as interconnections and dependencies between world areas such as Africa, Latin America, the West. Among the issues considered: political correctness and truth; nativism and ecological diversity; race, ethnicity, and sexuality; sin, religion, and war; global process and cultural integrity.

Full details for ANTHR 2400 - Cultural Diversity and Contemporary Issues

What is money? How do people use money in the real world? How are technological innovations changing people's perceptions of money? This course introduces anthropological perspectives on economy and society through a variety of ethnographic studies of money and finance. Topics of discussion include "primitive money" and colonial currencies, the uses of money in religious and ritual practices, social and cultural meanings of numbers, mobile money, crypto-currency and other alternative currency systems, and the social life of finance.

Full details for ANTHR 2440 - The Social Life of Money

Global Mental Health is a growing and important field. Anthropology has a long history of contributing to debates in cross-cultural psychiatry and psychotherapy, as well as to the perennial questions of "nature versus nurture" in defining "normal" versus "pathological" ways of being human. We examine the efficacy of traditional and community-based mental health practices in a non-Western indigenous context as well as the challenges to accessible care posed by inequality and poverty, as well as the stigmas surrounding mental illness in varied cultural contexts. In addition to exploring traditional healing traditions, we will study the efficacy of new community-based forms of biomedical care, as they relate to both debates on changing health care practices and aspirational needs (e.g., bio-medicalization vs. alternative "traditional" medicine; the need for better healthcare delivery systems, etc.) and ideas of the person, wellbeing, and the ethical life that exist within Nilgiris societies.

Full details for ANTHR 4530 - Mental Health, Healing Systems, Community-Based Care: Resilience in the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve