Courses
Search for courses listed in this bulletin. To find a semester course schedule (including instructors, meeting times and locations), go to mynmu.nmu.edu.
- Offered: Fall Winter
The significance of culture and society as means of adapting to a varied and changing environment. Adaptation and cultural evolution are examined through a cross-cultural study of economic, social, political and ideological institutions. Art, music and language are also discussed.
- Offered: Fall Winter
Introduces current evidence for bio-cultural human evolution. Fossil record, heredity, genetics, primate studies, human variation and adaptation, and archaeological evidence of domesticates and social complexity are interrelated to provide an understanding of our present status as Homo sapiens.
- Offered: Fall
This course introduces a holistic, four-field approach to anthropology. Students will examine what it means to be human, central concepts to the field of anthropology, anthropological methods, ethics, applied anthropology, and the four subfields of anthropology: physical anthropology (including forensic anthropology), archaeology, sociocultural anthropology, and linguistic anthropology.
- Offered: Contact Department
Study the relationship between humans and natural environments. The elements of sociocultural systems of various types of tribal and modern societies are compared. Broad trends and relationships are stressed; the course utilizes knowledge from biology, social science, psychology and ecology.
Notes:Formerly People, Nature and Culture.
- Offered: Contact department
- Prerequisites: AN 101 or AN 110.
Students receive a comprehensive introduction and overview of the archaeology of the ancient peoples of the North American and South American continents, with additional attention given to the Great Lakes region. Using the archaeological record students explore over 15,000 years of human history – from Ice Age hunters to farmers of Mesoamerica. Students learn about ancient technological advancements, plant domestication, monumental earthworks and architecture, ancient lifeways, settlement systems, subsistence methods, increasing social complexity, and mortuary/ceremonial practices.
- Offered: Contact Department
Human happiness is a focus of multiple traditions -- artistic, poetic, religious, philosophical, scientific, and social scientific. This course addresses the social and cultural factors that contribute to, or detract from, the experience of happiness. The emphasis is on social forces – interpersonal, institutional, and global -- that shape our human journey on a path toward well-being.
Notes:Cross-listed as SO 287.
- Offered: Contact department for information
- Prerequisites: AN 100 or AN101 or AN110.
Development of anthropological topics not addressed in regular courses, depending on faculty expertise and student needs.
Notes:May be repeated if topic differs.
- Offered: Winter odd years
- Prerequisites: SO 101, or AN 100,or AN 101, or AN 110, or instructor permission.
This course introduces students to the sociological and anthropological traditions that examine religious practices and their relationship to sociocultural systems and processes. The thematic study of diverse religious practices, in North America and throughout the world, will shed light on the nature and functions of religion as a core social institution. Both classical and contemporary sociological and anthropological theory will emphasize the role of religion throughout human history.
Notes:Cross-listed with SO 312 Religion and Society.
- Offered: Contact Department
- Prerequisites: AN 100, or AN 101, or AN 110.
Students in this course are introduced to some of the popular myths and mysteries in our society, and in anthropology, including some of the controversies surrounding attempts at archaeological fraud in other countries. Students are introduced to anthropological ethics, uses of archaeology for different political agendas and nationalism, and how to critically analyze various forms of pseudoscience. Techniques for investigating myths, mysteries, sagas, legends, fables, and tales are introduced, while covering a wide range of subject matter. Students learn methods to establish “evidence” and “facts” while exploring alternative forms of explanation and investigation techniques. Do creation myths have any basis in facts? Do legends have any anthropological or archaeological evidence to support them? What new finds have been found that might alter our current understanding of the world? What happens when myth meets science?
- Offered: Contact Department
- Prerequisites: AN 100 or AN 110.
Analysis of the cultural variability of the North American indigenous communities and Inuits prior to European contact, as well as the effects of this contact on indigenous peoples. Concludes with a discussion of contemporary issues unique to the native peoples of North America.
- Offered: Contact Department
- Prerequisites: AN 100 or AN 110.
Introduction to the cultures of the native peoples of the Great Lakes. Examines the life ways of the indigenous people before European contact and assesses the impact of European contact. Focus on how different environments of the Great Lakes Region influenced native lifestyles and how people adapted to these differing environments.
- Offered: Winter even years.
- Prerequisites: AN 100, AN 101, AN 110 or SO 101.
This course introduces students to ethnographic field methods and theories, and includes qualitative analyses and student projects. Students learn qualitative methods and field methods, including: short and long term fieldwork techniques, selection and sampling, participant observation, and various forms of data collection and analysis.
Notes:May be repeated twice for credit.
- Offered: Contact department for information
- Prerequisites: AN 101 or instructor's permission.
Introduction to archaeological field methods through participation in actual site survey and excavation. Instruction is given in excavation procedures, survey techniques, recording, photography, preservation, cataloging and preliminary analysis.
- Offered: Winter, odd numbered years
- Prerequisites: Instructor Approval.
This course involves a combination of instructional modules that train students in the important topics of ethics, history, safety, policies, and standard procedures associated with the Forensic Research Outdoor Station (FROST), and hands-on, on-site training and application of FROST data collection methods. Methods include documentation of observations, photography, and possibly sample collection.
- Offered: Fall, odd numbered years
- Prerequisites: AN 101.
This course introduces students interested in Forensic Anthropology to the history of the discipline as well as topics like death investigation, skeletal anatomy, forensic taphonomy, and the methods used by forensic anthropologists to analyze the human skeleton. The course has both lecture and lab components. Most of the laboratory exercises will take place indoors, but there may be outdoor aspects (weather permitting).
- Offered: Contact Department
- Prerequisites: AN 101
This course will emphasize a hands-on approach to learning archaeology lab methods, including for example artifact processing, artifact stabilization, cataloguing, artifact research and analysis, electrolytic cleaning, ceramic refitting, metals analysis, computer graphics, flotation processing of soil samples, and curation practices, among others. Student research will include in-depth artifact research and analysis, interpretation, report preparation, writing skills, and formal presentations. Students will use artifacts and data from a variety of archaeological sites in the Great Lakes region and Midwest, including those excavated during NMU’s summer archaeology field schools (AN 355 summer course).
- Offered: Contact Department
- Prerequisites: AN 100 or AN 110, or instructor's permission.
Analysis of behavioral science dimensions of health systems and institutions at regional, national and global scales. Discussion includes social and cultural factors relating to health, occurrence and distribution of disease. Cross cultural analysis of biomedicine and societal medical systems.
- Offered: Contact Department
- Prerequisites: AN 101 or AN 110.
This course covers a variety of museum topics with a focus on interpreting and using anthropological and archaeological collections in exhibits. Students will gain an understanding of the operations of museum anthropology departments, including working with and curating collections, collections management and conservation methods, and exhibition development. Along the way students explore related careers, and learn the latest museum technology in use by anthropologists. Students learn the role of museums, historical societies, and archaeologists in telling the story of our past through interpretation and dissemination of material culture and historical documents. Students participate in preparing artifacts and objects, displays, and content for real exhibits using archaeological collections; they discuss current laws, controversies, the curation crisis, and issues affecting collecting and the future of museums. Local trips to critically analyze museum exhibits and content labels are included. This course prepares students for summer work at a historical society or museum.
- Offered: Contact department for information
- Prerequisites: AN 101 or AN 110.
This experimental archaeology course is designed to provide students with an empirical understanding of how the archaeological record is created, subsequently altered, and interpreted. It also combines learning ancient methods of tool manufacture and use, and the creation of replicas of prehistoric technology based on archaeological discoveries and ethnographic data. In addition to providing an overview of experimental archaeology the course also builds on a foundation of knowledge learned in the introductory courses.
- Offered: Contact Department
- Prerequisites: AN 101.
This course will cover the topic of historical archaeology with an emphasis on sites from the Great Lakes region, including local historic sites. Each week the class will meet for a short lecture, and for a longer in-the-field project, excavation, and/or research time. Students will gain hands-on in-the-field archaeological survey, mapping, and excavation experience. Students will gain an understanding of the complexity of historical archaeology, including everything from obtaining landowner permission to surveying and mapping, from excavation to laboratory analysis, and from research to interpretation. Students will write up and present their findings, explore related careers, and learn the latest technology in use by historical archaeologists, and learn how historical archaeology adds a new dimension to the history of the Great Lakes region.
- Offered: Winter, odd numbered years
- Prerequisites: Two of the following courses: AN 100, or AN 101, or AN 110.
Students in this course receive a comprehensive overview of the history of the field of Anthropology from an international perspective. We explore Anthropology’s early obsessions, sociological and evolutionary thought, and the various successes and failures along the way. We also delve into postmodernism, anthropological regionalism, historical particularism, functionalism, neo-materialism, structuralism, ethno-science, globalization, processualism, behavioral ecology, and applied anthropology, among other topics. Our path begins in Medieval Europe in the 16th century and crosses into the present.
- Offered: Contact Department
- Prerequisites: AN 101 or AN 110.
This course is both an overview of forensic anthropology and a problem-based course on the use of both criminal justice and archaeological field data recovery techniques for the investigation of archaeological, outdoor crime, disaster scenes and search and recovery. The course is taught partly in a classroom/lab setting, but also has extensive experience in the field and in laboratory contexts. The course content includes forensic archaeological search, survey, mapping, excavation, data recovery, data management, cataloging, preservation, and curation techniques using the most modern methods. In addition students employ excavation and remote sensing techniques to recover animal skeletal material, and to document simulated crime scenes. Students will develop the intellectual skills and practical tools to carry out and conclude an investigation in forensic anthropology.
- Offered: Fall, odd numbered years
- Prerequisites: Two of the following courses: AN 100, AN 101, or AN 110.
Students receive a general introduction to theory and criticism in anthropology and cultural studies, which includes central theories that shape the theory and practice of the social sciences. Students will critically evaluate writings in Marxism, Globalization, Ideology and Hegemony, Structuralism, Post Structuralism, Place and Identity, Technology and Identity, and the Politics of Difference as relayed through diverse theories of Feminism, Race, and Post-Colonial Theory and Criticism.
- Offered: Winter, Even numbered years
- Prerequisites: AN 365 or instructor permission.
This is an intensive, hands-on course that makes use of real human skeletal material from the FROST/FARL donated collection. This course is designed to provide students with in-depth knowledge of bone biology and skeletal anatomy, and the skills to conduct advanced metric and non-metric skeletal analysis for determining human/non-human differentiation, pathology, trauma, and estimation of sex, ancestry, stature, and age-at-death.
- Offered: Contact department
- Prerequisites: Instructor Permission.
Practical experience under the supervision of an experienced anthropologist or similar professional, in an academic, governmental or private setting. A course subtitle on the student’s transcript describes the particular content of this course.
Notes:This course may be repeated for a total of 6 credits. Contact hours are dependent upon the number of credits for which the student registers and are arranged with the faculty mentor and on-site coordinator.
Course assessment will be on a credit/no-credit basis and does not involve a letter grade; 80-100% results in Credit, 79% and below results in No Credit.