NEW and Exciting for Spring 2022
Internships – ANTH 4327 Earn a grade while networking and gaining real world experience. Dr. Flinn has many contacts! Past internships have led to permanent positions. Contact Dr. Flinn for more information.
Egyptology – ANTH 4325 Your anthropology degree is not complete without studying the archaeology, culture, history, and language of the Egyptian civilizations. Tell a friend – all majors welcome!
ST: Anthropology of Tourism – ANTH 4398 As a tourist, how do you influence and possibly alter the cultures you are visiting? Is gentrification a tourism by-product? Does the host area alter you, the traveler? Explore these topics and more with Dr. Flinn.
Explore anthropology at the same time you earn required General Education Core credit!
Anthropology courses count in TWO different core areas: Understanding Cultures (ANTH 2316) fulfills Core requirements in the area of Social Science and Physical Anthropology (ANTH 1415) is a Core Science course. See below for more information about these courses – their titles are in MAROON below.
Need an elective, but don’t know what course to take?
Anthropology offers many classes that allow you to explore our world’s great cultural diversity, how we got here, and how you fit into it all. Courses with titles that appear in GREEN are great upper level courses with no prerequisites!
Recent Special Topics courses:
- Cultures of the Pacific (Fall 2019)
- Public Archaeology (Fall 2019)
- Gender and Culture (Spring 2020)
Full listing of regular courses:
ANTH 1415 Physical Anthropology (a Core Science Course)
A hands-on examination of the study of past and present human and nonhuman primates as biological organisms. Topics include human genetics, variation and osteology, nonhuman primate taxonomy and behavior, forensic anthropology, and the human fossil record. Three hours lecture, two hours laboratory per week. Four credit hours.
ANTH 2316 Understanding Cultures (a Core Social Science Course)
Prerequisite: RHET 1311 recommended. Examines the concept of culture, cultural processes, and anthropological theories. Topics include subsistence strategies, politics, religion, gender, ethnicity, economics, marriage, stratification, and socialization. Case studies from both small-scale and large-scale societies. Required for majors. Three credit hours. ACTS course number ANTH 2013
ANTH 3312 North American Indians
Prerequisite: ANTH 2316. A study of Indian cultures from the Arctic to northern Mexico from immediately after European contact to the present. Three credit hours.
ANTH 3313 Archaeology
What do we know about past human cultures from the remains they left behind? This course is an introduction to the methods and goals of archaeological discovery. How and why do archaeologists choose research questions and what techniques do they use to answer them? What is archaeology’s role in addressing cultural heritage issues and other contemporary social concerns? The course will develop problem-solving skills, ethics, and a greater understanding of the diversity of human ways of life. Lecture, discussion, and activities. Three credit hours.
ANTH 3318 Sexuality, Society, and Culture
This course provides a social scientific examination of the nature of sexuality cross-culturally as well as in Western society. Examines sexuality in a broader socio-cultural context and cultural construction used from prehistoric to post-modern eras as a form of reproduction and a means for deep expression of intimacy with others and as a device for the domination and exploitation of people of various social categories. Three credit hours. This course also counts for Gender Studies.
ANTH 3319 Cultures of the Middle East
The anthropological study of Middle Eastern culture and society; covers the political conflicts and cultural adaptations in the region. The course also focuses on ethnic differentiation and the influence of Islam upon all the cultures and peoples of the Middle East. Three credit hours.
ANTH 3320 Buried Cities, Ancient Lives
Asking the question “How did we get here?”, this course offers a long-term perspective on human diversity and the forces of cultural change by examining the archaeological record. Why, how, and where did early cities and states arise? What did ancient cultures contribute to today’s world? Investigation of the daily lives of past peoples, technological innovations, ancient religions, and the emergence of complex economic, agricultural, and political systems. Lecture and discussion. Three credit hours
ANTH 3378 Medical Anthropology
Prerequisite: ANTH 1415 or 2316. Comparison of non-Western and Western medical systems, definitions of health and disease, kinds of treatment, and varieties of cures; examination of the problem of how to adapt Western medicine to the needs of diverse cultural and ethnic groups. Three credit hours.
ANTH 3381 Social Statistics
Recommended: MATH 1301 or equivalent. Basic statistical techniques and their corresponding theoretical premises, which are often used in statistical reasoning in sociology. Qualitative variables, characteristics of attributes, measures of their variation, correlation, and tests of significance are stressed. Three credit hours.
ANTH 3383 Human Paleontology
Prerequisite: grade of C or better in ANTH 1415. Study of the fossil evidence for human evolution and the scientific principles that apply to that study; interpretation of morphological patterns in a functional and adaptive framework; interaction of cultural and biological aspects of hominid development. Three credit hours.
ANTH 3388 Relatives and Relations: Anthropology of Kinship, Marriage, and Family
Prerequisite: ANTH 2316. Systematic treatment of marriage, descent, and alliances on a cross-cultural basis. Examination of social behavior and terminologies related to kinship systems drawn from traditional and modern societies. Three credit hours.
ANTH 4301 – Anthropology of Death Death is one of the few true human universals. However, there is tremendous temporal and cross-cultural variation in the attitudes toward and the practices associated with death. This class explores this variation from a holistic, anthropological viewpoint incorporating concepts from cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, and archaeology. Topics include medical versus social death, mourning practices, memorialization, and forms of burial. Three credit hours. Dual-listed in the Graduate Catalog as ANTH 5301.
ANTH 4310 Urban Anthropology
Prerequisite: ANTH 2316. A survey of urbanization throughout the world, with emphasis on urban adaptation of rural migrants and the phenomenon of urbanization in emerging nations. Three credit hours.
ANTH 4312 Eating Cultures
Are we what we eat? Where does our food come from? This course is a broad exploration of human foodways from local to global scales. Students will learn to critically consider issues including social and cultural food diversity, early foodways, traditional diets, nutritional anthropology, small scale vs. industrial food production, the relationship of food to the environment, hunger and obesity, local food movements, and food as a means of social negotiation and communication. Special emphasis on food issues in the US and Arkansas today. Three credit hours.
ANTH 4313 Race and Human Variation
Prerequisites: ANTH 1415 and ANTH 2316 or permission of the instructor. This course explores the role of genetics, evolution, and adaptation in producing modern human biological variation. It will also focus on how this variation is/was interpreted around the world in general and in modern and historic North America in particular. We will explore the fallacy of biological race and the simultaneous importance of the cultural concept of race. Dual-listed in the Graduate Catalog as ANTH 5313. Three credit hours.
ANTH 4316 Linguistic Anthropology
Introduction to the subfield of linguistic anthropology. Examines the impact of linguistic structure on culture, socioeconomic factors in linguistic variation, intercultural and intracultural verbal and nonverbal communication. Also examines the theories and methods of descriptive anthropological linguistics applied to non Indo-European languages and introduces the student to structural linguistic analysis. Required for majors. Three credit hours.
ANTH 4320 Sociocultural Change
Prerequisite: ANTH 2316. Sociocultural change resulting from contact of acculturation, question of acceptance and rejection, pressures toward change, the role of the individual, appraisal of anthropological information and theory in a changing world. Three credit hours.
ANTH 4321 Religion, Society, and Culture
Introduction to the role of shamans, witches, diviners, cultic and magic belief systems, function of myth, ritual, religious symbolism, meaning of spirit possession, revitalization, and ancestor worship in tribal, peasant, and modern societies. Three credit hours.
HIST/ANTH 4324 The City
This interdisciplinary course focuses on “The City,” looking at the city through the lenses of anthropology, history, urban planning, geography, and the history of architecture. We will focus on the city in the imagination (the idea of the city), the city in space (urban designs and plans), and the city in time (the development of cities over the years). While readings and examples will range throughout history and across the globe, each of the three parts of the course will include an assignment looking specifically at our own urban laboratory: Little Rock.
ANTH 4325 Egyptology
This course will survey the archaeology of Egyptian civilization, from the earliest settlement of the Nile River Valley through the conquest of Alexander the Great and his successors. The course will also consider the origins of the field of Egyptology as well as a number of key archaeological sites representing the lives of the elite as well as the ordinary citizens of the Nile River Valley. Three credit hours.
ANTH 4327 Internship
Practical experience consisting of at least 90 hours of supervised work in a private or public organization. The objective is for students to apply theoretical orientations and anthropological skills in a work situation. Three credit hours.
ANTH 4355 Forensic Anthropology
Prerequisite: ANTH 1415 or consent of instructor. Forensic anthropology applied to knowledge of human variation to legal matters. The primary emphasis in this course will be human skeletal variation. The theoretical basis of sex determination, age estimation, and ethnic origin classification based upon skeletal characteristics will be examined. Other issues such as fire death scene investigation, interval since death, and forensic archaeology also will be addressed. This course will be offered once a year. Dual-listed in the UALR Graduate Catalog as ANTH 5355. Three credit hours.
ANTH 4155 Forensic Anthropology Laboratory
Corequisite: ANTH 4355 or prerequisite: ANTH 4355. Emphasizes hands-on experience in using anthropometric, morphological and statistical techniques employed in age and stature estimation as well as sex and race determination. Laboratory exercises also include forensic archaeology, treatment and proper handling of forensic anthropology evidence, and how to write a forensic anthropology report. Dual-listed in the UALR Graduate Catalog as ANTH 5155. One credit hour.
ANTH 4180, 4280, 4380 Independent Study
Prerequisites: ANTH 1415 or 2316, junior or senior standing, consent of chairperson. One, two, or three credit hours.
ANTH 4382 Anthropological Theory
Prerequisite: ANTH 1415 or 2316. Examines the range of theories used to describe and explain variability in sociocultural phenomena. Explores the organization of particular theories as well as issues that separate divergent theories. Major theoretical orientations to be explored include evolutionism, Marxism, Freudianism, structuralism, structural-functionalism, ethnoscience, diffusionism, historical particularism, cultural ecology, sociobiology, and cultural materialism. Required for majors. Three credit hours.
ANTH 4390 Teaching Internship
Prerequisite: consent of instructor. Working with individual instructors, upper- level majors assist lower-level students by holding study sessions twice a week for those enrolled in ANTH 1300, 1315, or 2316 and performing other tasks determined through consultation with the instructor. Three credit hours.
ANTH 4395 Senior Seminar in Holism
Prerequisite: completion of major core. Senior capstone course. Students read and discuss current work bridging the subfields of anthropology and write essays on their understandings of selected goals for the major. Three credit hours.
ANTH 4398 Special Topics
Selected topics in anthropology. Three credit hours.
ANTH 4399 Anthropology Cooperative Learning Internship
Prerequisite: declared major, 60 hours of course work completed, consent of the department chairperson and director of cooperative education. Placement in an applied work experience in either
physical or cultural anthropology or archaeology. Students will work under the direction of specialists in these areas or specialists in related areas. Credit will be awarded based on at least 200 hours of work during the semester and fulfillment of the contractual obligations agreed to by both UALR and the public/private
agency where placement occurs. Three credit hours.
ANTH 4440 Applied Anthropology
Students take Anthropological practices from the classroom to the real world, applying research and analytic skills to social services and social planning, especially in the fields of education, healthcare, law enforcement, and economic development. The course culminates with a class research project in the local community. Four credit hours.
ANTH 4467 Primatology
Prerequisite: Grade of C or better in ANTH 1415. This course will explore the social systems, behavior, and ecology of nonhuman primates through the examination of behavioral and biological diversity within the primate order from an evolutionary perspective. Course material will draw heavily on field studies of primates and emphasize their behavior in natural environmental and social settings. The lab portion of the class will complement lecture and reading material with practical experience in scientific research and writing. In addition to lectures, we will also meet regularly at the Little Rock Zoo to practice observational field methods used by primatologists. Four credit hours.
ANTH 4485 Ethnographic Methods
Prerequisite: ANTH 2316. Instruction and supervised practice in data gathering methods and analyses in native or ethnic settings. Lectures and discussions twice weekly. The fourth hour is reserved for field study. Data gathering methods, analysis in native or ethnic settings. Dual-listed in the UALR Graduate Catalog as ANTH 5485. Four credit hours.
ANTH 4487 Archaeological Investigation
Prerequisite: Grade of C or better in ANTH 3313 or consent of instructor. Hands-on experience in archaeological methods. Focus on how and why to conduct archaeological research and public archaeology. Emphasis on field and laboratory activities, methodologies, and research design that respects and involves living human communities. May be repeated once for additional credit. Four credit hours.
ANTH 4600 Archaeological Field Research
Prerequisite: consent of instructor. Introduction to methods and theory of archaeological research, Arkansas pre-history, and public archaeology through excavations, laboratory experience, and lectures. Meets daily, off campus. Six credit hours.
