School of Social Sciences, Humanities & Arts 

[For additional information on Anthropology at UC Merced please visit the Anthropology Website]

Overview | Requirements for the B.A. | Course Descriptions | Learning Outcomes

Overview

Anthropology is dedicated to understanding humankind’s diversity as well as what makes us uniquely human. Through the specific perspectives and methods of socio-cultural, archaeological, and biological anthropology, students learn how the human experience (past and present) is constituted through the interaction of social, cultural, political, material, historical, environmental, and biological factors. Anthropology strives for a holistic understanding of humankind and, depending on the questions asked and the means used to discover answers, anthropological knowledge can straddle the social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences.

The undergraduate major in Anthropology emphasizes how topics and issues central to the human experience such as migration, gender, power, health, kinship, race, and identity are examined and understood through diverse anthropological methodologies. In upper division courses, students explore particular socio-cultural, archaeological, and biological perspectives on such issues in greater depth, and these courses may specifically engage perspectives from two or more sub fields. Other courses may consider a range of topics within a specific geographical area, while acknowledging certain limitations to the area studies configuration of knowledge.

Undergraduate majors in Anthropology develop critical skills in thought, written and oral expression, and the application of knowledge, as well as a valuable understanding of human cultural diversity. In an increasingly globalized world in which interaction with people of diverse cultures is becoming the norm, developing a cross cultural understanding about the complexities of human societies past and present is what makes Anthropology an ideal education for the 21st century. A bachelor’s degree in Anthropology is valuable preparation for a career in law, medicine, education, business, government, museums, and various areas of non profit, public, and international service, including public policy and cultural resource management. The Anthropology program also provides a strong foundation for graduate study in any sub field of anthropology. By offering undergraduate majors opportunities to work with faculty research and apply knowledge and skills to local communities, agencies, and business through service learning and internships, students are further prepared for advanced study and successful careers.

Requirements for the Anthropology Major, B.A.¹

In addition to adhering to the UC Merced and School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts requirements, the Anthropology major requires at least 48 units in Anthropology courses, as well as one additional 4-unit quantitative reasoning course and one additional 4-unit upper division interdisciplinary thematic articulation course that may simultaneously fulfill General Education Requirements. Courses in the major must be taken for a letter grade, and specifically may not be taken on a pass/no pass basis unless the course is only offered on a pass/no pass basis. Required courses are:

LOWER DIVISION MAJOR REQUIREMENTS [16 units]:

• Introduction to Socio-cultural Anthropology (ANTH 001)
• Introduction to Anthropological Archaeology (ANTH 003)
• Introduction to Biological Anthropology (ANTH 005)*
  *Does not satisfy the Natural Sciences or Engineering course with laboratory, field or studio General Education requirement.
• One lower division quantitative methods course from the following*:
  • Statistical Inference (ECON 010)
  • Statistics for Scientific Data Analysis (MATH 018)
  • Analysis of Political Data (POLI 010)
  • Analysis of Psychological Data (PSY 010)
  • Statistics for Sociology (SOC 010)
    *Meets the Quantitative Reasoning General Education requirement.

UPPER DIVISION MAJOR REQUIREMENTS [40 units]:

• History of Anthropological Thought and Practice (ANTH 100)
  
  
• One upper division field methods course selected from the following:
  • Ethnographic Methods (ANTH 170)
  • Archaeological Field Methods (ANTH 176)
• One upper division laboratory or archival methods course selected from the following:
  • Ethnohistory (ANTH 172)
  • Lithic Analysis (ANTH 174)
  • Human Osteology (ANTH 178)
  • Bioarchaeology (ANTH 179)
• One upper division anthropology course from each of the following three fields:
  • Socio-cultural anthropology (ANTH 110 through ANTH 129)
  • Anthropological archaeology (ANTH 130 through ANTH 149)
  • Biological anthropology (ANTH 150 through ANTH 169)

ADDITIONAL DEGREE REQUIREMENTS [16 UNITS]

• At least three additional upper division courses in Anthropology
• At least one upper division interdisciplinary thematic articulation course outside of Anthropology
  (Please consult a SSHA advisor or the SSHA web site for approved courses).
• The upper division field methods requirement may be satisfied by taking an archaeological Field School from an approved institution.

Transfer Students

Transfer students who wish to major in Anthropology should complete the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) at their community college. In addition, students should complete at least two UC transferable introductory courses in anthropology, one of which must be introductory socio cultural anthropology, and one UC-transferable statistics course.

Course Descriptions

LOWER DIVISION COURSES

ANTH 001: Introduction to Sociocultural Anthropology [4]
Introduction to human culture and cultural diversity, including the methods by which anthropology - via the study of social institutions, shared practices, and collective meanings - seeks to understand how people adapt to, make sense of, and transform their worlds.
Discussion included.

ANTH 003: Introduction to Anthropological Archaeology [4]
Survey of theory, field and analysis methods, and objectives of anthropological archaeology. Examines how intellectual perspectives guide the ways in which archaeologists undertake their work and the types of materials they collect and analyze to study issues such as technology, exchange, subsistence, settlement, social organization, and ideology.
Discussion included.

ANTH 005: Introduction to Biological Anthropology [4]
Introduction to evolution and how natural selection has shaped modern human variation. Examination of non-human primate behavior and how analogous it might be to that of early humans. Discussion of culture, the fossil evidence, genetics, and inheritance.
Laboratory included.

ANTH 090X: Freshman Seminar [1]
Examination of a topic in anthropology.
May be repeated for credit.

ANTH 095: Lower Division Undergraduate Research [1 - 5]
Supervised research.
Permission of instructor required. May be repeated for credit.

ANTH 098: Lower Division Directed Group Study [1 - 5]
Permission of instructor required. Pass/No Pass grading only. May be repeated for credit.

ANTH 099: Lower Division Individual Study [1 - 5]
Permission of instructor required. Pass/No Pass grading only. May be repeated for credit.

UPPER DIVISION COURSES

ANTH 100: History of Anthropological Thought and Practice [4]
Historical overview of key individuals and central ideas influencing the practice of anthropology and the production of anthropological knowledge. Topics may include the disciplining of anthropology into related subfields; social evolutionism, historical particularism, British structural-functionalism; French structuralism; cultural ecology; sociobiology; symbolic and interpretive anthropology; feminist and other critiques of anthropology.
Prerequisite: ANTH 001 and (ANTH 003 or ANTH 005) or consent of instructor. Discussion included.

ANTH 110: Migration, Diaspora and Transnational Belonging [4]
Exploration of modern, global movements of people with a focus on the conditions, processes, and practices of contemporary national and transnational belonging. Topics include globalization, migration, immigration, Diaspora, the nation-state, national identities and cultural citizenship.
Prerequisite: ANTH 001 or junior standing.

ANTH 112: Political Anthropology [4]
Political anthropology involves the study of formal political institutions as well as the manifestations of power in everyday life. Topics may include anthropological perspectives on: the state and other forms of political authority; social inequality; conflict; indigenous responses to colonialism and the nation-state; social movements; citizenship; governmentality; and globalization.
Prerequisite: Junior standing or ANTH 001.

ANTH 114: Social Memory [4]
Introduction to the practices, spaces, artifacts and media through which social memory is formed, maintained and reproduced. Topics may include: how societies remember; how the past and its representation is bound up with national and other collective identities; commemoration;heritage; and the link between history, memory, and social justice.
Prerequisite: Junior standing or ANTH 001.

ANTH 116: Indigenous Activism in the Americas [4]
Focusing on the contemporary struggles of Indigenous peoples for rights; self-determination; social, political, and environmental justice and/or increased nation-state participation. Examines how the mobilization of indigenous peoples is strengthened through regional, hemispheric and global solidarities; and how international law, media, and technology support indigenous actions for change.
Prerequisite: Junior standing or ANTH 001.

ANTH 120: Introduction to Medical Anthropology [4]
This course provides knowledge about medical anthropology, how different cultures understand human physiology and health, definitions of sickness, types of medical systems and practitioners, how cultural practices affect health, issues in gender environmental health, and how medical anthropology influences health policy.
Prerequisite: ANTH 001 or ANTH 005. Letter grade only.

ANTH 121: Ethnomedicine [4]
This course provides knowledge of medical systems cross culturally including the three ancient literary systems (Chinese, Ayurvedic, Greco-Arabic), shamanism, folk medicine, and biomedicine. Readings focus on the beliefs and organization of each system, types of practitioners, types of sicknesses treated, and how anthropologists research and understand these phenomena.
Prerequisite: ANTH 001 or ANTH 120.

ANTH 124: Ethnopsychology [4]
This course covers anthropological perspectives on mental states, experience of emotions, and concepts of mental normality in a variety of cultural settings. Lectures and readings will focus especially on the relationship between individual and society, the role of emotions, and the definition of psychological phenomena cross culturally.
Prerequisite: ANTH 001 or ANTH 120.

ANTH 126: Anthropological Approaches to Gender [4]
This course will examine gender and sexuality cross-culturally: cultural aspects of gender, sexuality, reproduction, and gender identity. Readings will explore definitions of male and female roles, sexual mores, issues in human reproduction, variations in definitions of sexual identity, and cultural, economic and religious aspects of gender, marriage, and family.
Prerequisite: ANTH 001 or ANTH 120.

ANTH 130: Material Culture [4]
Examines the role that material objects play in human social relations, identity, and economy, including archaeological application of such knowledge to past societies. We explore the range of production and use of material objects, including theories of material culture, technology, style, meaning, memory, and agency.
Prerequisite: ANTH 003 or junior standing or consent of instructor.

ANTH 134: Dynamics of Small-scale Societies [4]
Examines ethnographic and archaeological literature on small-scale hunter-gatherer-fisher and horticultural societies, and explores how these data contribute to study of subsistence and settlement strategies, technology, exchange, demography, and social relations in the past and present.
Prerequisite: ANTH 003, junior standing or consent of instructor.

ANTH 140: Cultural Heritage Policy and Practice [4]
Critical examination of the legal, practical, and ethical aspects of cultural heritage management in the United States and abroad. Topics include cultural resource management in public and private contexts, participation of stakeholders, the application of anthropological knowledge, and public outreach.
Prerequisite: ANTH 003, WH 001, or junior standing or consent of instructor.

ANTH 142: Archaeology of Colonialism [4]
Examines theoretical perspectives, issues, and interpretations in archaeological study of the interaction between indigenous peoples, European colonists, and enslaved Africans. Topics include disease, power, resistance, colonial institutions, multi-ethnic communities, and gender relations in diverse native engagements with colonists and others from a variety of homelands.
Prerequisite: ANTH 003 or junior standing or consent of instructor.

ANTH 146: Archaeology of Native California [4]
Research issues and regional interpretations in the archaeological study of California native cultures from earliest settlement to contact with Europeans.
Prerequisite: ANTH 003 or junior standing or consent of instructor.

ANTH 150: Race and Human Variation [4]
Investigation of how human biological variation is studied and how the definition of such variation differs between the scientific community and the public. Topics include historical perspectives on race and eugenics, how scientific racism has shaped national policy, and how genetic diversity and the Human Genome Project have informed such issues.
Prerequisite: ANTH 005 or junior standing.

ANTH 151: Human Adaptability [4]
Examination of how humans live in marginal environments, such as extremely hot, extremely cold, or high altitude areas. Evolutionary, genetic ecological, demographic, and cultural explanations for human biological adaptability are explored. Students consider case studies from the high Andes, Siberia, equatorial South America, and the International Space Station.
Prerequisite: ANTH 005 or junior standing or consent of instructor.

ANTH 152: Dying, Death, and Dead Persons [4]
Examination of the multiple cultural meanings of death and the dead person, including hospice, reactions to death, memorial gestures, rights to and constructions of the dead body in the U.S. legal system, cadavers in education and research, dead persons in mass disasters and human rights cases, archaeological examples, and repatriation issues.
Prerequisite: ANTH 005 or junior standing or consent of instructor.

ANTH 155: Paleodemography [4]
Exploration of human population growth and decline, fertility and mortality, and population age and sex structure in the past without benefit of written records. Topics include the interplay of demography and hominid evolution, migration, environmental stress, the transition to agriculture, and the rise and fall of complex societies.
Prerequisite: Junior standing and ANTH 003 and ANTH 005 or consent of instructor.

ANTH 160: Human Origins [4]
This course explores the biological heritage of humans by providing students with a rigorous grounding in modern evolutionary theory and undertaking detailed Study of the phylogeny, morphology, and paleoecology of the Hominini. In addition, this course uses the fossil record to reveal the truly unique features of Homo sapiens.
Prerequisite: ANTH 005. Discussion included.

ANTH 162: Growth, Development, and Human Evolution [4]
This course applies modern life history theory to understand how evolution of growth patterns contributed to divergence in adult morphology among human ancestors, as revealed by the fossil record of hominin species. We also examine the uniquely human phenomenon of childhood, and the geographic diversity observed among modern human beings.
Prerequisite: ANTH 005.

ANTH 169: Trends in Biological Anthropology [4]
Explores current trends in biological anthropology. Course material will vary. Possible topics may include: isotopic analysis of human nutrition; genetic studies of human variation and adaptability; life history and population studies of health and disease; studies of the interaction of the environment, human behavior, and human biology; and ethics.
Prerequisite: ANTH 005. May be repeated for credit once.

ANTH 170: Ethnographic Methods [4]
Examination of the critical use of historical documents, journals, and visual images; archives; oral history to understanding past cultures and culture change. Analysis of case studies and original archival research demonstrate how these sources complement data collected through ethnographic, archaeological, or biological methods.
Prerequisite: ANTH 001 or junior standing or consent of instructor.

ANTH 172: Ethnohistory [4]
This course examines the critical use of historical documents, journals, and visual images; archives; and oral history to understanding past cultures and culture change. Analysis of case studies and original archival research demonstrate how these sources complement data collected through ethnographic, archaeological, or biological methods.
Prerequisite: ANTH 001, ANTH 003 or junior standing or consent of instructor.

ANTH 174: Lithic Analysis [4]
Systematic consideration and practical application of analytical laboratory and data recording techniques used to study stone tools and manufacturing debris. Topics include procurement; production and reuse; style and function; the organization of technology with respect to settlement and gender; and craft specialization.
Prerequisite: ANTH 003 or consent of instructor. ANTH majors/minors given priority. Laboratory included.

ANTH 176: Archaeological Field Methods [4]
Introduction to the goals and methods of archaeological surface survey, excavation, and various forms of field documentation. The integration of research issues and methods is addressed through both classroom and field activities.
Prerequisite: ANTH 003 or junior standing in the major. Fieldwork included.

ANTH 178: Human Osteology [4]
Students develop a basic familiarity with human skeletal remains, including the identification of the bones of the skull, dentition, and axial and appendicular skeletons. Identification of side (i.e., left, right) and element of both intact and fragmentary remains are considered.
Prerequisite: ANTH 005 or consent of instructor. ANTH majors/minors given priority. Laboratory included.

ANTH 179: Bioarchaeology [4]
In-depth consideration of methods used to identify sex, age at death, stature, and ancestry from human skeletal remains. Anthropometrics, disease, trauma, and basic demographic techniques are also considered, preparing students for anthropological study of both individual remains and skeletal populations.
Prerequisite: ANTH 005 and ANTH 178 or consent of instructor. Laboratory included.

ANTH 190: Topics in Anthropology [4]
Exploration of a special topic or problem within or between fields in anthropology. Topics vary and course may be repeated for credit if topics differ.
Prerequisite: Junior standing, ANTH 001, ANTH 003, or ANTH 005 or consent of instructor. May be repeated for credit twice with different topics.

ANTH 195: Upper Division Undergraduate Research [1 - 5]
Supervised research. Permission of instructor required. May be repeated for credit.

ANTH 198: Upper Division Directed Group Study [1 - 5]
Permission of instructor required. Pass/No Pass grading only. May be repeated for credit.

ANTH 199: Upper Division Individual Study [1 - 5]
Permission of instructor required. Pass/No Pass grading only. May be repeated for credit.

¹_{All requirements are for informational purposes only. Please consult the current UC Merced catalog, or your advisor for official requirements.}

Page content current with 2009-2011 UC Merced General Catalog