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Spring Term Courses 2009
Contact Information

The Department of Anthropology at Western Oregon University offers a comprehensive training in anthropology, equipping students with a set of skills that allows them to critically examine and understand human behavior and cultural diversity in their own and other societies, skills that are increasingly important in today's globalizing world. In addition to introductory courses in all four sub-fields of anthropology - archaeology, linguistic, physical, and sociocultural anthropology - the department offers an exceptionally varied program due to the diverse teaching interests of the faculty, which range from Northwest Indian Cultures to Environmental Anthropology to the Anthropology of Africa. Majors in our program conduct independent research for their Senior Project. Working closely with faculty, students design research, conduct fieldwork, and write it up in a senior thesis. We encourage our students to do research abroad. In previous years students have gone to Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The anthropological training students receive and the skills they develop - critical and clear analytical thinking, independent research, inter-cultural communication - prepare students for a wide range of professional careers in research, policy, and consultancy, as well as graduate studies.

Introduces the anthropological study of language and communicative behavior. Examines the basic concepts underlying linguistic analysis and reviews anthropological studies of conversational practice and social variation in language and speech. Our central concern is to understand the complex interplay between language, culture and social relations.

Biological aspects of the human experience, especially interactions between biology and culture. A review of the modern synthetic theory of evolution; fossil evidence of early primate and hominid populations; the mechanisms of heredity, human variation and adaptation; and the development of culture in human evolution. Attention throughout the course to the nature of science as a cultural construct.

Understanding the human past through the study of material remains. A review of the methods used to collect and analyze data and the theories used to construct chronologies, reconstruct ancient life styles and explain the processes of cultural evolution. Examines some of the major contributions of archaeology and discusses the relevance of archaeology to everyday life.

Examines the concepts and methods of cultural anthropology through ethnographic case studies of people around the world. Focuses on culture, or the learned beliefs, behaviors, and symbols unique to each society.

We begin with the earliest uses of moving images to capture and re-present human behavior for research, teaching and entertainment in the 1890s. Over the next 100 years we see the influences of technology, social and political movements, aesthetic styles, and anthropological debates on the work of ethnographers and filmmakers. Styles of cinematic expression and changing relationships amongst ethnographer, filmmaker, subject, and audience are addressed. Having acquired a vocabulary and set of concepts for talking and writing about film, watching intently and sharing what we see, and sampling broadly across cultures and topics of human experience, we come to see human life in a new way.

Course provides a critical perspective on racial/ethnic categorizations. Through lectures, discussions, readings, and films, students become acquainted with the social, cultural, historical, and evolutionary context of modern human diversity.

Survey of African societies that compares classic and contemporary anthropological texts covering similar structures and processes in very different, colonial and postcolonial contexts. The goal is to come to an anthropological understanding of how political, economic, historical and cultural factors shape contemporary African societies.

Introduces students to the field of environmental anthropology, which explores relationships between culture, society, and the physical aspects of environments across the globe. The course examines major theories in ecological research in anthropology, then moves to a critical exploration of significant issues in the field today, such as religion and resource use, indigenous environmental knowledge, economic development, conservation, cultural and human rights, and environmental social movements. Readings cover a variety of environmental contexts and social groups.

This course applies insights from cultural anthropology to contemporary social issues. The course reviews the history of applied anthropology in U.S. and then explores ways in which anthropology may provide a framework for approaching solutions to real-world problems. The course will include the following domains of inquiry and action: health and medicine, international development, education, law and criminal justice, the environment, and the ethics of research and intervention.