Anthropology (ANTH)
The department encompasses two disciplines, sociology and anthropology, and offers separate majors and minors in each.
Cultural anthropology explores the basis of and implications for human diversity by posing general and specific questions about the varieties of human experience. The study of human diversity contributes essential elements to a liberal arts education.
The aim of the Anthropology major is to introduce students to the theories and methods anthropologists use to study and analyze different cultures around the world. Instruction is offered on various topical issues (e.g. the anthropology of economics, religion, medicine and emotions), and on the ways anthropologists research problems that are both practical and intellectual in nature. Students may go on to graduate work in anthropology, but a major in Anthropology furnishes skills and conceptual tools useful in a wide variety of paths.
We encourage Anthropology majors to include original research and off-campus experiences in their program of study. We make field research a required component in several of our courses, and we encourage students to take anthropology courses in off-campus study programs in the U.S. and abroad. We encourage students interested in off-campus field research to take research methods courses beginning in their second or third year at Bucknell, although seniors with no prior experience are usually admitted to field study courses.
Honors
The department strongly encourages qualified majors to consider working for honors in anthropology. Such students should consult with one or more members of the faculty of the department to begin defining a research topic and writing a proposal in their junior year. Normally, during the senior year, an honors student will enroll in ANTH 319 Honors Course in Anthropology and, if agreed to by the academic adviser, a second semester in ANTH 320 Honors Course in Anthropology. The honors proposal is to be approved by the department chairperson and submitted to the Honors Council by the Honors Program calendar deadlines posted online. Further information can be obtained from the student’s academic adviser, the department chairperson, and from the Honors Council.
Anthropology Major
The major in anthropology requires that students complete nine courses. Students may count a total of two sociology courses (one methods/theory course and one elective course) toward the anthropology major. Requirements are as follows:
| ANTH 109 | Introduction to Cultural Anthropology | 1 |
| ANTH 201 | Field Research in Local Communities | 1 |
| ANTH 283 | Theory in Anthropology | 1 |
| ANTH 330 | Advanced Seminar in Anthropology 1 | 1 |
| ANTH Electives (one must be at the 300 level) | 4 | |
In addition, students must take ONE of the following courses:
| SOCI 208 | Methods of Social Research | 1 |
| SOCI 209 | Analyzing the Social World | 1 |
| SOCI 211 | Classical Sociological Theory | 1 |
| SOCI 212 | Sociological Theory | 1 |
| 1 | This course serves as the Culminating Experience. |
The major in anthropology provides students with an overview of the discipline, broad exposure to cultural issues and anthropological concerns, and a variety of specialty areas in the field, reading and writing skills, and information literacy. Courses emphasize careful reading and analysis of ethnographic and theoretical texts, writing as part of both research process and presentation of results, presentation to multiple audiences, and how to find and use information from multiple sources. Students will graduate prepared for the workforce or graduate/professional study.
The department strongly recommends that core courses be taken as early as possible in a student’s career (preferably during the sophomore or junior year). Students should take at least one anthropology course at the 100 or 200 level before taking the methods courses (ANTH 201, SOCI 208, or SOCI 209). Methods courses are not intended for first-year students.
Courses that are cross-listed as anthropology and sociology courses count as anthropology courses and still allow anthropology majors to take one elective designated solely as a sociology course.
Up to two off-campus courses may be counted toward 200-level electives in the major. The department chair may allow off-campus courses to count toward other major requirements if these courses adequately substitute for material that is taught in our department.
Minor in Anthropology
The minor in anthropology requires a minimum of five courses in anthropology, with no more than one course at the 100 level. No more than one off-campus course ordinarily counts toward the minor.
Anthropology Learning Goals
Demonstrate a basic understanding of the field of cultural anthropology.
Demonstrate awareness of the sub-fields within anthropology (biological anthropology, archeology, linguistic anthropology, cultural anthropology) and of applied anthropology.
Demonstrate a basic understanding of ethnography and how it differs from other types of qualitative and quantitative research methods in the social sciences.
Demonstrate an awareness of the variety, variability and relativity of social categories and systems of meaning around the world.
Demonstrate a familiarity with different cultures in a least one ethnographic region of the world.
Demonstrate knowledge of the history of anthropology and the development of the major theoretical perspectives of the discipline.
Courses
ANTH 109. Introduction to Cultural Anthropology. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Nature and scope of the field: method and theory, institutions of human beings in cross-cultural perspective, case studies. Preference to first and second year students. Juniors and seniors only with permission.
ANTH 201. Field Research in Local Communities. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Participant-observation, interviewing, and other field research methods. Students will devise and conduct their own ethnographic research projects in a local community. Not open to first-year students. Crosslisted as SOCI 201.
ANTH 202. Rainforests and Eco-Politics in Latin America. 1 Credit.
Offered Spring Semester Only; Lecture hours:3
This course examines climate policy debates and recent shifts in global environmentalism, with a focus on a wide range of Latin American territories. Crosslisted as LAMS 202 and ENST 209.
ANTH 210. Environmental Ethnography. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
This course explores environmental issues from around the world through scholarly readings in environmental anthropology. Students will also examine and practice the ethnographic methods that qualitative social scientists use to understand environmental phenomena. Not open to first-year students. Crosslisted as ENST 210.
ANTH 229. Pilgrimage, Prayer, and Purity: The Anthropology of Religion. 1 Credit.
Offered Spring Semester Only; Lecture hours:3
The anthropological analysis of religion and religious phenomena. The exploration of religious practices across the globe, including initiation, circumcision, death and funerary customs, spirit possession, sacrifice, pilgrimage and saint veneration.
ANTH 232. Gender and Sexuality in South Asia. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Explores issues of gender and sexuality in South Asia, primarily India and Sri Lanka. Topics include marriage, family, life cycle, religion and nationalism. Crosslisted as WMST 232.
ANTH 233. Science, Technology, and Society. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
This course explores the interactions of science, technology, and society. An introduction to science and technology studies (STS), this course covers a variety of perspectives and approaches including historical, philosophical, anthropological, and sociological. Topics include technology and war, human cognition, and feminist bioscience, and debates about commercialization, governance, and welfare.
ANTH 234. Zombies: From Slavery to Pandemics. 1 Credit.
Offered Summer Session Only; Lecture hours:6,Other:2
Considers the anthropology, history, and symbolism of zombies. Topics include slavery, Haitian folklore, contemporary films, the role of the zombie in U.S. popular imagination, and the zombie as commentary on colonialism, race, consumerism, and pandemics. Includes two asynchronous film viewings per week. Students will leave this class with braaaaaaaaaaaaaains.
ANTH 235. Modern Africa. 1 Credit.
Offered Fall Semester Only; Lecture hours:3
Introduction to the complexity, richness, and vitality of contemporary African culture. Interdisciplinary perspectives on issues including economy, politics, family and community, art, literature, religion. Crosslisted as IREL 235.
ANTH 243. Violence and Politics in Southeast Asia. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Introduction to diversity of contemporary Southeast Asia. Interdisciplinary perspectives on topics including politics, gender, religion, violence, and globalization.
ANTH 248. Latin America: Challenges for the 21st Century. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Perspectives on the challenges facing Latin American peoples and nations in the 21st century. Crosslisted as LAMS 250.
ANTH 251. Gender, Power and Global Development. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
This course examines the relationship between women and development, and an ideological, economic, political, and social enterprise. Crosslisted as WMST 251.
ANTH 256. Anthropology of Native North America. 1 Credit.
Offered Alternating Fall Semester; Lecture hours:3
This course introduces students to the anthropology of contemporary Native North America. The goal is to teach students the theories, concepts, and methods used by anthropologists to investigate and explain the practices, beliefs, attitudes, and organization of Native peoples.
ANTH 260. Environmental Anthropology. 1 Credit.
Offered Spring Semester Only; Lecture hours:3
Using anthropological methods and theories as a guide, this course considers the form and content of human interactions with the environment in various regions of the world. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
ANTH 261. Culture and Environmental Change in Africa. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
This course introduces environmental anthropology as it applies to cultural beliefs and practices in various parts of the world, including Ghana. Cultural anthropology is the study of human diversity, and environmental anthropology is a subdiscipline of cultural anthropology that considers how humans and nature are interwoven. Crosslisted as ENST 261.
ANTH 265. Food, Eating, and Culture. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Social significance of food and eating. Taboos and ritual, food and identities, eating and political hierarchy, food and gender, global culture. Materialist and symbolic interpretations.
ANTH 266. Money, Markets and Magic. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
This course will provide an introduction to the study of economic systems within specific cultural contexts. We will consider how economic systems interact with other aspects of daily life on the level of the individual, the family, and society.
ANTH 267. Anthropology of Tourism. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Tourism is one of the largest industries in the world. The contemporary tourism industry is an outgrowth of global capitalism. We will consider the specific relationships between tourists, toured, service providers, the state, and money.
ANTH 271. Dance and Culture. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
An exploration of dance as a cultural practice. Topics include: the body and movement; gender and sexuality; race and ethnicity; colonialism and nationalism; aesthetics; ritual and healing; globalization; representation. Crosslisted as WMST 271.
ANTH 283. Theory in Anthropology. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Explores the historical and contemporary theories in cultural anthropology; conceptualizations of culture, society, humankind; history and critical assessment of the concept of culture in anthropology. Crosslisted as ANTH 683.
ANTH 288. Global Cuisines, Local Contexts: Commensality and Conflict. 1 Credit.
Offered Alternating Spring Semester; Lecture hours:3
We will consider how food both brings people together, and creates divisions between them, through an in-depth examination of the cases of French and Andean (South American) cuisines. Cuisine will be considered through aesthetic, cultural, and economic lenses as a mirror into larger social worlds. Crosslisted as FREN 288 and LAMS 288 and UNIV 288.
ANTH 290. Medical Anthropology. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Health and illness are not solely determined by an individual's biology. Their social determinants are the focus of this course. An understanding of health requires an investigation into the cultural meanings of the body, social relations, and the systems of power in which they are embedded.
ANTH 291. Culture and Mind. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
This course examines the relationship between cultural and mental phenomena through a historical and cross-cultural perspective. What does the study of the mind as a cultural phenomena reveal about social life, conflicts, and movements?.
ANTH 293. Ancestors and Androids: African Religions in a Global Era. 1 Credit.
Offered Occasionally; Lecture hours:2,Other:1
Examines African religions in a global era, focusing on the intersection of culture, religion, and globalization. Focuses on beliefs and practices in Africa's three major religious traditions: indigenous African religions, Christianity, and Islam. Crosslisted as AFST 293 and RELI 293.
ANTH 305. Womb to Tomb: Culture and the Life Course. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Explores how members of different cultures imagine and experience major phases of the life course: birth, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, old age and death.
ANTH 306. Culture and Madness. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
This seminar examines the mental health and illness in cross-cultural perspective. Questioning commonly held notions about the nature of madness, the course focuses on how categories of deviance and abnormality are assigned to people.
ANTH 307. Language & Environmental Politics. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Communication is central to how people perceive the environment, understand their relationship to it, and organize actions to change it. This course draws on concepts from linguistic anthropology, including discourse analysis, to examine debates about wildlife conservation, clean energy, eco-friendly products, environmental rights, and climate change. Crosslisted as ENST 320 and LING 320.
ANTH 310. Culture, Nature and Place. 1 Credit.
Offered Alternating Spring Semester; Lecture hours:3
We examine the intersection of place, nature and culture throughout the world, including our own backyard. Prerequisites: permission of the instructor and ANTH 109 or GEOG 101.
ANTH 311. Mind, Madness and Medicine. 1 Credit.
Offered Both Fall and Spring; Lecture hours:3; Repeatable
The cross-cultural study of mental health and illness, gender and health, pharmaceuticals, and ritual healing, etc. This is a student led seminar.
ANTH 312. Global Health. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
This seminar examines the global impact of social, political, and economic processes on health and illness, emphasizing anthropological methods and theories. Topics include infectious diseases, mental health, disasters, ageing, reproductive health, and development aid.
ANTH 319. Honors Course in Anthropology. 1 Credit.
Offered Both Fall and Spring; Lecture hours:Varies
Each student selects a project to be developed individually. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
ANTH 320. Honors Course in Anthropology. 1 Credit.
Offered Both Fall and Spring; Lecture hours:Varies
Each student selects a project to be developed individually. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
ANTH 325. Advanced Reading in Anthropology. .5-2 Credits.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:Varies,Other:12; Repeatable
Readings developed around the interest of individual students. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
ANTH 326. Advanced Reading in Anthropology. .5-2 Credits.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:Varies,Other:12; Repeatable
Readings developed around the interest of individual students. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.
ANTH 328. Feeding Latin America. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
An advanced seminar about the history of relationships between peoples, cultures, agricultural systems, and cuisines in Latin America. Topics will include: plant and animal domestication, pre-Columbian agriculture and environments, colonialism, land tenure regimes, food as global commodity, food aid and foreign policies, and contemporary gastropolitics.
ANTH 329. Religions in Africa: Spirits, Saints, and Sufis. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Explores the diversity of religious beliefs and practices in Africa. Religious change, syncretism, and ritual debates. Prerequisite: any anthropology course or permission of the instructor.
ANTH 330. Advanced Seminar in Anthropology. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Focuses on selected topics of ethnographic and theoretical interest, varying from year to year according to the professor. This Culminating Experience course is open only to senior anthropology majors, and junior anthropology majors by permission. Prerequisite: ANTH 283 (may be taken concurrently) and permission of the instructor.
ANTH 351. Field Research. .5-2 Credits.
Offered Alternating Spring Semester; Lecture hours:3; Repeatable
Independent investigation in the field; formulation of hypotheses, construction of measuring instruments, data collection, data analysis, and test of hypotheses.
ANTH 360. Animals and Society. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
This course explores human/animal interactions or the "species boundary". Specifically, we analyze how animals figure across multiple social domains, examining the possibilities and limitations of studying complex relationships with nonhuman others, a burgeoning sub-discipline in cultural anthropology. Students will design and execute their own animal studies ethnographic project.
ANTH 371. Dance, Culture and Politics. 1 Credit.
Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
An exploration of dance as cultural and political practice. Topics include: colonialism; the politics of tradition; gender, ethnicity, and nationalism; dance and violence. Prerequisites: not open to first-year students or students who have taken ANTH 271 or WMST 271 Dance and Culture. Crosslisted as UNIV 371 and WMST 371.
Faculty
Chair: Elizabeth Durden
Professors: Coralynn V. Davis, Michelle C. Johnson (Associate Dean of Social Sciences), Edmund Searles
Associate Professors: Susan A. Reed, Clare Sammells, Allen L. Tran
Visiting Assistant Professors: Daniel Alvord, Dannah Dennis