Anthropology
Faculty
List
Discipline Representative: TBA
Anthropology ProgramsSPECIALIST (CO-OPERATIVE) PROGRAM IN ANTHROPOLOGY (ARTS/SCIENCE)The Specialist (Co-operative) Program in Anthropology has been withdrawn from the curriculum. Every effort will be made to ensure that students currently enrolled in the program are able to complete it. Degree students who first enrolled at UTSC prior to the 2011 Summer Session should refer to the 2010/2011 UTSC Calendar. SPECIALIST PROGRAM IN ANTHROPOLOGY (ARTS/SCIENCE)The Specialist Program in Anthropology is intended to provide the
professionally oriented student with background preparation of sufficient
breadth and depth to pursue specialized training at the graduate level.
It is also designed to offer interested students a course structure
as background for a wide range of occupations and professions. Students
are encouraged to consult with the Supervisor of Studies regarding
the selection of a course sequence appropriate to their interests
and objectives. In exceptional circumstances, supervised research
and reading courses are available at the C- and D-levels (ANTC03H3,
ANTC04H3, ANTD31H3,
ANTD32H3). These courses
require special arrangements prior to registration. Read the descriptions
for these courses carefully as restrictions apply.
Note: For a B.Sc. at least 7.5 of the credits required for the program must be science credits. MAJOR PROGRAM IN ANTHROPOLOGY (ARTS/SCIENCE)The major program in Anthropology provides a course structure for
those students desiring to expand upon or supplement other areas of
academic interest by taking advantage of Anthropology's unique global,
chronological, and biological perspective on the human condition.
Note: For a B.Sc., at least 5.5 of the credits required for the program must be science credits. MINOR PROGRAM IN ANTHROPOLOGY (ARTS)The Minor Program in Anthropology provides a course structure for
students majoring or specializing in other disciplines who want some
directed exposure to anthropological thought.
The Specialist Program in Medical Anthropology has been withdrawn from the curriculum. Every effort will be made to ensure that students currently enrolled in the program are able to complete it. Anthropology CoursesANTA01H3 Introduction to Anthropology: Becoming Human An introduction to Biological Anthropology and Archaeology. How does an anthropological perspective enable us to understand cultural
difference in an interconnected world? In this course, students will
learn about the key concepts of culture, society, and language. Drawing
upon illustrations of family, economic, political, and religious systems
from a variety of the world's cultures, this course will introduce
students to the anthropological approach to studying and understanding
human ways of life. This course examines human-environmental relations from an anthropological
perspective. Throughout the semester, we explore how peoples from
different parts of the globe situate themselves within culturally
constructed landscapes. Topics covered include ethnoecology, conservation,
green consumerism, the concept of 'wilderness', and what happens when
competing and differentially empowered views of the non-human world
collide. An overview of the range and diversity of African social institutions,
religious beliefs and ritual, kinship, political and economic organization,
pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial experience. How is culture represented through visual media, from ethnographic
and documentary film, to feature films, television, and new media?
How do various communities re-vision themselves through mass, independent,
or new media? This course investigates media and its role in the contemporary
world from a socio-cultural anthropological perspective. This course surveys humanity's origin. The synthetic theory of evolution,
its principles, processes, evidence and application underlie this
course. Lecture topics and laboratory projects include: evolutionary
theory, human variation, human adaptability, primate biology, and
behaviour, taxonomy and classification, paleontological principles
and human origins. Basic to the course is an understanding of the synthetic theory of
evolution and the principles, processes, evidence and application
of the theory. Laboratory projects acquaint the student with the methods
and materials utilized Biological Anthropology. Specific topics include:
the development of evolutionary theory, the biological basis for human
variation, the evolutionary forces, human adaptability and health
and disease. This course explores the creation or invention of a Canadian national
identity in literature, myth and symbolism, mass media, and political
culture. Ethnographic accounts that consider First Nations, regional,
and immigrant identities are used to complicate the dominant story
of national unity. This course addresses Latin American systems of inequality in relation
to national and transnational political economy, from colonialism
to neoliberalism; how ideas of race, culture, and nation intersect
with development thinking and modernization agendas; and how the poor
and marginalized have accommodated, resisted, and transformed cultural
and political domination. This course introduces students to the theory and practice of ethnography,
the intensive study of people's lives as shaped by social relations,
cultural beliefs, and historical forces. Various topics, including
religion, economics, politics, and kinship introduce students to key
anthropological concepts and theoretical developments in the field. This course is a further examination of approaches to the study of
human cultural diversity in an interconnected world. Through ethnographic
accounts and documentary films, students examine the affects of globalization
through the political dimensions of culture and the global flows of
technology, religion, kinship networks, migration, capital and crime. How are language and culture connected? How does language works in
ritual, kinship, religion, myth, media, and everyday life, and how
does language affect thought? These questions are introduced with
a variety of ethnographic examples. This course will provide students with a general introduction to
the behaviour and ecology of non-human primates (prosimians, Old and
New World monkeys, and apes), with a particular emphasis on social
behaviour. The course will consist of lectures reinforced by course
readings; topics covered will include dominance, affiliation, social
and mating systems, communication, and reproduction. This course examines the social significance of food and foodways
from the perspective of cultural anthropology. We explore the beliefs
and behaviours surrounding the production, distribution and consumption
of food, and the role of food in shaping or revealing cultural relations,
identities, political processes, and form of globalization. Introduces the cultures and peoples of the Pacific. Examines the
ethnography of the region, and the unique contributions that Pacific
scholarship has made to the development of anthropological theory.
Explores how practices of exchange, ritual, notions of gender, death
and images of the body serve as the basis of social organization. A directed exploration of specific topics in Anthropology, based
on extensive investigation of the literature. This course explores the intersection of the social and the material
by examining the role of objects in making worlds. We examine the
relationship between people, culture, and 'things' through topics
such as commodification and consumption, collecting and representation,
technology and innovation, art and artifact, and the social life of
things. This course explores Anthropological approaches to kinship and family
arrangements. In addition to examining the range of forms that family
arrangements can take cross-culturally, we also examine how kinship
configurations have changed within our own society in recent years.
Topics to be covered include trans-national adoption, "mail-order-brides",
new reproductive technologies and internet dating. A critical probe of the origins, concepts, and practices of regional
and international development in cultural perspective. Attention is
paid to how forces of global capitalism intersect with local systems
of knowledge and practice. This course examines how recent developments in biotechnology - cloning,
the manufacture of genetically modified organisms, assisted reproduction
technologies, and the mapping of the human genome, to name a few -
are transforming our understanding of what it means to be human, including
the relationship between human beings and other species. Examines why, when, and how gender inequality became an anthropological
concern by tracing the development of feminist thought in a comparative
ethnographic framework. Complements and extends ANTC14H3
by exploring cultural constructions of male and female in a range
of societies and institutions. The study of human origins in light of recent approaches surrounding
human evolution. This course will examine some of these, particularly
the process of speciation, with specific reference to the emergence
of Homo. Fossils will be examined, but the emphasis will be on the
interpretations of the process of hominisation through the thoughts
and writings of major workers in the field. The study of human origins in light of recent approaches surrounding
human evolution. New fossil finds present new approaches and theory.
This course will examine some of these, particularly the process of
speciation and hominisation with specific reference to the emergence
of Homo. Labs permit contact with fossils in casts. Urban spaces, neighbourhoods, and institutions have at different
times been the focus of ethnographic studies of cities. In this course
we will examine the role of culture, cultural diversity, space and
performance in urban institutions. This course examines economic arrangements from an anthropological
perspective. A key insight to be examined concerns the idea that by
engaging in specific acts of production, people produce themselves
as particular kinds of human beings. Topics covered include gifts
and commodities, consumption, global capitalism and the importance
of objects as cultural mediators in colonial and post-colonial encounters. What limits exist or can be set to commoditized relations? To what
extent can money be transformed into virtue, private goods into the
public "Good"? We examine the anthropological literature on gift-giving,
systems of exchange and value, and sacrifice. Students may conduct
a short ethnographic project on money in our own society, an object
at once obvious and mysterious. This course will review primate socio-sexual behaviour from an evolutionary
perspective. Following a broad survey of mating patterns in the primate
order, specific topics will be discussed, including male and female
mating strategies, mate choice and sperm competition. Taxonomic groups
of focus will include prosimians, monkeys, apes and humans. How are we to understand the relationship between psychological universals
and diverse cultural and social forms in the constitution of human
experience? Anthropology's dialogue with Freud; cultural construction
and expression of emotions, personhood, and self. The nature and logic of ritual. Religious practices and projects;
the interface of religion, power, morality, and history in the contemporary
world. Can ethnographic research help us make sense of various political
situations and conflicts around the world? In this course we will
review different approaches to power and politics in classical and
current anthropology. We will consider notions of the state, political
agency and power, civil society, authoritarianism and democracy. Anthropological approaches to the origin and function of religion,
and the nature of symbolism, myth, ritual, sorcery, spirit possession,
and cosmology, with primary reference to the religious worlds of small-scale
societies. This course considers dimensions of transnationalism as a mode of
human sociality and site for cultural production. Topics covered include
transnational labour migration and labour circuits, return migration,
the transnational dissemination of electronic imagery, the emergence
of transnational consumer publics, and the transnational movements
of refugees, kinship networks, informal traders and religions. A consideration of quantitative data and analytical goals, especially
in archaeology and biological anthropology. Some elementary computer
programming, and a review of program packages suitable for anthropological
analyses will be included. An examination of the biological, demographic, ecological and socio-cultural
determinants of human and non-human population structure and the interrelationships
among them. Emphasis is given to constructing various demographic
measures of mortality, fertility and immigration and their interpretation. Human adaptability refers to the human capacity to cope with a wide
range of environmental conditions, including aspects of the physical
environment like climate (extreme cold and heat), high altitude, geology,
as well as aspects of the socio-cultural milieu, such as pathogens
(disease), nutrition and malnutrition, migration, technology, and
social change. Human adaptability refers to the human capacity to cope with a wide
range of environmental conditions. Emphasis is placed on human growth
and development in stressed and non-stressed environments. Case studies
are used extensively. A "hands-on" Laboratory course which introduces students to analyzing
human and nonhuman primate skeletal remains using a comparative framework.
The course will cover the gross anatomy of the skeleton and dentition,
as well as the composition and microstructure of bone and teeth. The
evolutionary history and processes associated with observed differences
in human and primate anatomy will be discussed. A "hands-on" laboratory course which introduces students to the methods
of analyzing human skeletal remains. Topics and analytic methods include:
(1) the recovery and treatment of skeletal remains from archaeological
sites; (2) odontological description, including dental pathology;
(3) osteometric description; (4) nonmetric trait description; (5)
methods of estimating age at death and sex; (6) quantitative analysis
of metric and nonmetric data; and (7) paleopathology. An investigation of how social-cultural anthropologists collect data
and conduct fieldwork. Students complement reading and lectures on
method with gaining first-hand experience in carrying out various
techniques of anthropological research including interviewing, collecting
life histories, participant observation, and project design. We also
consider what it means to carry out ethically responsible research. Social and symbolic aspects of the body, the life-cycle, the representation
and popular explanation of illness, the logic of traditional healing
systems, the culture of North American illness and biomedicine, mental
illness, social roots of disease, innovations in health care delivery
systems. The examination of health and disease in ecological and socio-cultural
perspective. Emphasis is placed on variability of populations in disease
susceptibility and resistance in an evolutionary context. With its
sister course, ANTC61H3,
this course is designed to introduce students to the basic concepts
and principles of medical anthropology. Principles of epidemiology,
patterns of inheritance and biological evolution are considered. This course explores the global cultural phenomenon of tourism. Using
case studies and historical perspectives, we investigate the complex
motivations and consequences of travel, the dimensions of tourism
as development, the ways tourism commodifies daily life, the politics
of tourism representation, and the intersection of travel, authenticity
and modernity. Epidemiology is the study of disease and its determinants in populations.
It is grounded in the biomedical paradigm, statistical reasoning,
and that risk is context specific. This course will examine such issues
as: methods of sampling, types of controls, analysis of data, and
the investigation of epidemics. Colonization, globalization and socio-ecological factors play an
important role in origin, maintenance and emergence of old and new
infectious diseases in human populations such as yellow fever, cholera,
influenza, SARS. Issues of co-morbidity, the epidemiological transition,
syndemics and the impact of global warming on the emergence of new
diseases are discussed. What makes the Middle East unique as a world region? This course
considers topics like transnational religious movements, imperial
and nationalist histories, issues of language diversity, the impact
of new communication technologies, and regional conflicts. This course examines 65 million years of evolutionary history for
non-human primates. The primary emphasis will be on the fossil record.
Topics covered may include the reconstruction of behaviour from fossil
remains, the evolution of modern primate groups, and the origins of
the Order. An ethnographic inquiry into the culturally configured human body
as a reservoir of experiential knowledge, focus of symbolism, and
site of social, moral, and political control. This course examines the social life of violence, its cultural production
and political effects in a global perspective. It asks how social
worlds are made and unmade through, against, and after violent events,
how violence is remembered and narrated, and how ethnography might
respond to experiences of suffering, trauma, and victimhood. This course provides students with experience in carrying out ethnographic
research in the Greater Toronto Area. Working with the Center for
Ethnography, students define and execute a research project of their
own design. This course culminates in an original research paper that
will be read by at least two faculty members. This course considers the reading and writing of ethnography - the
classic genre of socio-cultural anthropology. We examine what differentiates
ethnography from other forms of research and how to distinguish ethnographic
works of high quality. Also considered are the politics of representation,
including how ethnographic writing may reflect unequal relationships
of power. This course allows students to examine particular culture areas at
an advanced level. Regions to be covered may include South Asia, East
Asia, the Muslim World, Latin America, The Pacific, Europe, Africa,
or North America. Specific case studies from the region will be used
to highlight theoretical and ethnographic issues. An advanced seminar course primarily for majors and specialists in
biological anthropology. Topic to be announced annually. An advanced seminar course primarily for specialists and majors in
Anthropology. Topic changes annually and is linked to the theme of
our seminar series for the year. Students will attend talks by 2-3
guest speakers in addition to the regular seminar. In previous years,
the theme has been Masculinities, Pilgrimage, History and Historicities. This course is designed for advanced students seeking an intensive
examination of specific problems in medical Anthropology. Problems
to be discussed include: genetic disorders in families and populations,
the interaction of malnutrition and infectious diseases in human populations,
chronic non-infectious diseases in populations today, and epidemiology
and medical anthropology as complementary disciplines. This seminar course will examine the clinical, epidemiological and
public health literature on osteoporosis and other conditions impacting
skeletal health. The course will also explore the potential economic
impacts of osteoporosis on Canada's health care system given
emerging demographic changes. This seminar course will examine current socio-ecological theory
in primatology and explore different methods for studying and sampling
primate behaviour. An overview of the history of socio-cultural anthropology. This course
focuses on certain key theoretical debates which run through it and
largely determine the "state of the art" today. Evolutionary, diffusionist,
psychological, cross-cultural, functionalist, structuralist, hermeneutical
and other classical approaches are among those that will be considered
through the works of major figures like Tylor, Durkheim, Boas, Kroeber,
Malinowski, Radcliffe-Brown, Levi-Strauss, and others, up to the present.
An attempt will be made to understand these individuals in terms of
the social and intellectual climates in which they wrote. This course will examine the social and cultural contexts of animal-to-human
disease transmission globally, and the public risks associated zoonoses
present here in Canada. The course will incorporate both anthropological
and epidemiological perspectives.
Directed critical examination of specific problems in Anthropology,
based on library and/or field research. This course will focus on a new direction in anthropology, exploring
the potential of skeletal remains in reconstructing past lifeways.
This seminar style class will build upon concepts introduced in Human
Osteology courses. Additionally, more advanced methods of reconstructing
patterns of subsistence, diet, disease, demography and physical activity. This course will examine questions of particular controversy in the
study of Primate Evolution. Topics to be covered may include the ecological
context of primate origins, species recognition in the fossil record,
the identification of the first anthropoids, and the causes of extinction
of the subfossil lemurs. |
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