Anthropology Courses

ANTH 100

Introduction to Anthropology

An introduction to the anthropological concept of culture, its uses in the explanation of human behaviour, and its impact on our understanding of human nature, language, and society. The course will explore cultural diversity through the comparative perspective that makes anthropology unique within the humanities and social sciences. It will also show how anthropologists analyse the connections between politics, economics, gender, kinship, and religion within particular cultures.

ANTH 202

Anthropology of Language

An introduction to the anthropological study of language. This course examines a variety of theories and methods for the study of the variable relations between language use and aspects of social life and of personhood, among them social organization, hierarchy, power, gender, sexuality, and subjectivity.
***Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or completion of 12 credit hours or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 203

Social Organization

An analysis of the political, economic, and ideological aspects of social organization, with particular emphasis on kinship, gender, and social stratification in non-industrialized societies.
***Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or completion of 12 credit hours or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 237

Ethnography of Europe

This introductory course offers an overview of the ethnographic study of Europe since the 1950s. Different regions of the continent are examined through close reading of ethnographic writings concerned with gender, morality, social class, ethnic affiliation, and nationalist ideology.
***Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or completion of 12 credit hours or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 239

Ethnography of Amazonia

This course explores ethnographic and theoretical issues in the social anthropological study of indigenous Amazonian peoples. Privileged topics include the exploration of native understanding of sociality, cosmology, selfhood, morality and emotions. The course also addresses issues in regional history, social organization, and political and economic anthropology.
***Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or completion of 12 credit hours or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 240

Popular Culture

Taking an ethnographic approach, this introductory course examines representations of popular culture in mass media, music, film, advertising, consumer goods, and leisure. The course is particularly concerned with ways in which popular discourses and practices are implicated in the reproduction of, and resistance to, dominant values, norms and ideologies.
***Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or completion of 12 credit hours or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 241AL

Ethnography of Canada and the United States

This course surveys the contemporary cultures and sub-cultures of North America, focusing on Canada and the United States. Topics covered include social organization, cosmology, gender, art, tourism, globalization, and ethnicity.
***Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or completion of 12 credit hours or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 241AM

Ethnography of Circumpolar Peoples

This course surveys ethnographic, archaeological, and archival literatures on the
Circumpolar North, focusing on selected cultures from Alaska, Northern Canada,
Greenland, Northern Scandinavia, and Northern Russia. It discusses the methods and theory of the region’s ethnography.
***Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or completion of 12 credit hours or permission of department head***

ANTH 242AA

Anthropology of Cyberspace

This course looks at cyberspace as a human society and utilizes anthropological perspectives to achieve a critical, analytical, and reflexive understanding of the internet and its relations to the real world. It introduces students to anthropological methods and ethical considerations in understanding the virtual life of the inhabitants of cyberspace.
***Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or completion of 12 credit hours or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 242AB

The Anthropology of Violence and Conflict

This course will apply anthropological theories to explore violence and conflict as social processes rather than as isolated events. We will utilize various cross-cultural examples to explore how violence and conflict maintain social stability while disrupting social norms.
***Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or completion of 12 credit hours or permission of the Department Head.***
*Note Students may receive credit for one of ANTH 242AB or ANTH 320AM.*

ANTH 242AC

Anthropology of Death

The main focus of this course will be a cross-cultural study of death and mortuary rituals. The dynamic relationships that exist between living and deceased members of communities and nations will be explored through attentive review of early and contemporary ethnographic research. This course will demonstrate that ethnographic engagement with death and mortuary rituals can help reveal and further understandings of fundamental aspects of our social lives.
***Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or completion of 12 credit hours or permission of the Department Head.***
*Note Students may receive credit for one of ANTH 242AC or ANTH 390AI.*

ANTH 242AF

Fieldwork in Anthropology

This course is an introduction to the fundamentals of collecting qualitative data in anthropology. Students will closely read and analyze ethnographic texts concerned with field methods, and will put their knowledge to practice by carrying out hands-on research "at home" - on the university campus or at another location in the city.
***Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or completion of 12 credit hours, or permission of the Department Head.***
*Note: Students may receive credit for one of ANTH 242AF or and ANTH 233.*

ANTH 242AG

Community Museums and Engagement for Sustainability

Communities around the globe strive for cultural, economic and ecological sustainability. Many follow an ecomuseum model where they understand heritage to be multifaceted and engage with it in dynamic ways. This course will study the ecomuseum movement and participate in the development of an emerging ecomuseum in central Saskatchewan.
***Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or completion of 12 credit hours or permission of the Department head.***
*Note Students may receive credit for one of ANTH 242AG,ANTH 320AL, or IDS 290AB.*

ANTH 242AJ

Anthropology of Political Extremism

Today political extremism is a central concern for most societies. This course uses anthropological theory and ethnography to explore the extremes of political thought and action. Topics possibly covered in this class may include white nationalism, neo-nazis, men’s rights movement, radical environmentalism, religious political extremism of different faiths.
***Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or completion of 12 credit hours or permission of department head.***

ANTH 242AK

Cultural Heritage and Politics of the Past

Using local and international examples, this course explores the concept of cultural heritage and the dynamic issues surrounding its management. It examines theories and methods influencing the interpretation and protection of cultural heritage and how these impact conceptions of the past, contemporary society and the future of heritage.
***Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or completion of 12 credit hours or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 242AL

The Anthropology of Humour and Laughter

This introductory course is a cross-cultural examination of humour and laughter. Joking relationships, ritual clowning, the trickster image, as well as the social role of humour in religion, ethnicity, politics, and in daily interactions between men and women are among the topics covered in the course. ***Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or completion of 12 credit hours or permission of department head***

ANTH 242AM

Marking the Body: An Anthropology of Tattooing

This course explores the practice of permanently marking the body by tattooing, scarification, etc. Taking as its starting point Polynesian tattoo traditions, this course investigates the social, cultural, aesthetic, and other dimensions of marking the human body, and how practitioners and scholars have attempted to understand and explain these practices.
***Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or completion of 12 credit hours or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 242AN

Posthumanist Anthropology

Anthropology has always been concerned with the “more than human.” The concept of holism is inseparable from a multitude of actors; be they human, yak, herbal plant, or intangible ancestor. Connecting with past ethnographic insights, this course examines current anthropological research on aspects of the microbiome, the Anthropocene, and nanotechnology.
***Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or completion of 12 credit hours or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 242AO

Environmental Anthropology

Environmental anthropology is concerned with diverse ways of knowing our surroundings, including Indigenous perspectives. This course explores land-based ethics and wellbeing, as well as ways of learning with, through, and in landscapes. Students discover anthropological understandings of ecology of life, sentient ecology, architecture, design thinking, and language in landscapes.
***Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or completion of 12 credit hours or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 242AP

Business Anthropology

Modern business environments and practices benefit greatly from those who understand the social and cultural systems which govern our workplaces and shape our behaviors. An applied anthropological perspective enables us to navigate, analyze, and improve complex workplaces, business relationships, and career opportunities. Key areas of study will include business practices and hierarchies, the language of business, and cross-cultural communication.
***Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or completion of 12 credit hours or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 242AQ

Anthropology of Evil

This course is focused on the social construction of evil as evidenced in belief, discourse, and practice. By drawing on historical and contemporary anthropological theory and research we will debate, explore, and problematize the construction and use of the concept of evil for justifications of violence, weaponized politics, and enforcement of normative cultural systems.
***Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or completion of 12 credit hours or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 242AR

Anthropology and Fiction

Fantasy and other genres of literary and cinematic fiction often creatively invent worlds, species, societies, languages, social practices, institutions, relationships, histories, and new kinds of persons. What light can anthropological theories and archeological and ethnographic accounts shed on such creations? Can such creations, in turn, generate anthropological insight?
***Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or completion of 12 credit hours or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 242ME

Introduction to Museum Ethnography

This course provides an introduction to the history, purposes, transformation, as well as theoretical and ethical considerations of and for culture-historical museums. While its outlook is global and it will cover different kinds of museums around the world, its immediate and more practical focus is on local museums in Saskatchewan.
***Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or completion of 12 credit hours or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 247

Ethnography of Polynesia

This course surveys the cultures and societies of the islands of Polynesia. It investigates the region in historical perspective, including its place in the popular imagination of the West. Topics covered include social organization, cosmology, gender, art, tourism, globalization, and ethnicity.
***Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or completion of 12 credit hours or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 248

Ethnography of New Guinea

This course explores the diverse cultures of Papua New Guinea and other parts of Melanesia. It will investigate such topics as social organization, gender roles, and exchange, and reveal anthropological insights into the practice of cannibalism, love magic, and sorcery.
***Prerequisite: ANTH 100 or completion of 12 credit hours or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 304

Anthropology of Gender

How different cultures make distinctions between female, male and other gender categories; cross-cultural variation in gender definitions and roles; how gender shapes and is shaped by other aspects of culture and society.
***Prerequisite: Completion of 30 credit hours including at least 3 credit hours in ANTH, or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 307

Anthropology of Ritual

This course investigates ritual as a social event where participants convey key cultural values and meanings through symbolic action in "sacred" space and time. Using anthropological theory and ethnographic case studies, the course inquires into how religious belief, ethnic and national affiliation, class and gender, prestige and political power are reproduced and reconfigured in ritual practiced today in differing locales of the world.
***Prerequisite: Completion of 30 credit hours including at least 3 credit hours in ANTH, or permission of the department head.***

ANTH 309

The Anthropology of Personhood

An exploration of diverse cultural understandings of personhood. This course will use cross-cultural ethnographies as well as a variety of Western accounts to address social practices and understandings of bodies, sex and gender, subjectivities, emotions, and self-consciousness. It will also address debates concerning agency, freedom, morality, and structure.
***Prerequisite: Completion of 30 credit hours including at least 3 credit hours in ANTH, or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 310

Race, Ethnicity, and Nation

How anthropologists analyze notions of race, ethnicity, and nation as constructions of social difference and identity in the modern world. This course will critically explore the social processes that both naturalize and politicize issues of culture and group membership in modern nation states. It will also discuss how social scientific theories have been involved in these developments.
***Prerequisite: Completion of 30 credit hours including at least 3 credit hours in ANTH, or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 313

Material Culture and Consumption

A study of the investment of social values in the material world, including the cultural politics of "styles" in architecture, interior decoration, dress, etc. Consumption is approached ethnographically, in relation to modern personhood, kinship, and household formation. Practices such as collecting are studied in terms of the cultural politics of value in various societies. Emphasis is placed on modernity, with reference to ethnographic records of material culture in pre-industrial societies.
***Prerequisite: Completion of 30 credit hours including at least 3 credit hours in ANTH, or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 320AJ

Posthumanist Anthropology

The course will engage with non-anthropocentric human and social sciences, redefining the social as a collective of humans and non-humans, and including animals, plants, and other subjects. The course will address such topics as agency, animism, totemism, multispecism, ethics, and the dignity of the non-human.
***Prerequisite: Completion of 30 credit hours including at least 3 credit hours in ANTH, or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 320AL

Advanced Topics in Community Museums

Communities around the globe strive for cultural, economic and ecological sustainability. In many places, local community museums have become catalysts in this endeavour. This course provides a critical perspective on community museum with a focus on the ecomuseum movement in Saskatchewan.
***Prerequisite: Completion of 30 credit hours including at least 3 credit hours in ANTH, or permission of the Department Head.***
*Note: Students may receive credit for one of ANTH 320AL, ANTH 242AG, or IDS 290AB.*

ANTH 320AM

Advanced Anthropology of Violence

This course applies anthropological theories to explore violence and other forms of conflict as social processes rather than as isolated events. It provides a critical perspective on theoretical, methodological and ethical questions using a variety of ethnographic case studies and explores how anthropologists can effectively study this culturally universal phenomenon.
***Prerequisite: Completion of 30 credit hours including at least 3 credit hours in ANTH, or permission of the Department Head.***
*Note: Students may receive credit for one of ANTH 320AM or ANTH 242AB.*

ANTH 320AN

Readings in Popular Culture

This advanced course offers an overview of key theoretical approaches to popular culture, ranging from the Frankfurt School to postmodernism. Students will learn to use these approaches in critical analysis of cultural practices pertaining to the popular. Close attention will be paid to the ways in which popular culture is mobilized to promote particular values and ideologies, as well as to “resist” power.
***Prerequisite: Completion of 30 credit hours including at least 3 credit hours in ANTH, or permission of the Department Head.****

ANTH 320AO

Anthropology of Morality and Ethics

How do people's moral or ethical evaluations converge and differ across societies and history? What are the nature, sources, and entailments of their evaluations? This course examines anthropological accounts that provide theoretical and cross-cultural answers to these and related questions about moralities and ethics.
***Prerequisite: Completion of 30 credit hours including at least 3 credits in ANTH, or permission of the department head.***

ANTH 320AP

Anarchist Sex Radicals

This is a reading intensive course exploring anarchist sex radicals with a focus on Lillian Harman. This reading course will historicize anarchist sex radicals and focus on the writing of and debates around agitator, publisher and editor Lillian Harman (1869 – 1929).
***Prerequisite: Completion of 30 credit hours including at least 3 credit hours in ANTH, or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 333

Ethnographic Research

This course will explore how socio-cultural anthropologists do ethnographic fieldwork, and the methodological, epistemological, and ethical issues they encounter in such research. Topics covered may range from the technical aspects of participant observation, ethnographic interviewing, and the writing of field notes, to the broader issues of how a researcher's point of view and relation to the community under study influence the creation of ethnographic knowledge.
***Prerequisite: Completion of 30 credit hours including at least 3 credit hours in ANTH, or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 340

Anthropology and Contemporary Human Problems

The contribution of anthropological methods and principles to search for practical and ethical solutions to contemporary social and administrative problems involving intercultural communication and social change.
***Prerequisite: Completion of 30 credit hours including at least 3 credit hours in ANTH, or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 343

Medical Anthropology

The comparative study of medical systems and how they interact with their social and cultural context, including such issues as the healer-patient relationship, the socio-cultural construction of health and illness, and medical pluralism.
***Prerequisite: Completion of 30 credit hours including at least 3 credit hours in ANTH, or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 390AI

Anthropology of Death

The main focus of this course will be a cross-cultural study of death and mortuary rituals. The dynamic relationships that exist between living and deceased members of communities and nations will be explored through attentive review of early and contemporary ethnographic research. This course will demonstrate that ethnographic engagement with death and mortuary rituals can help reveal and further understandings of fundamental aspects of our social lives.
***Prerequisite: Completion of 30 credit hours including at least 3 credit hours in ANTH, or permission of the Department Head.***
*Note: Students may receive credit for one of ANTH 390AI or ANTH 242AC.*

ANTH 401

Theory in Anthropology I

An examination of the major ideas and prominent figures in the development of anthropological thought. Although other eras will be covered, emphasis will be placed on the period from 1850 to 1950.
***Prerequisite: ANTH 202 and ANTH 203, or permission of the Department Head.***

ANTH 402

Theory in Anthropology II

An overview of the principal schools of thought that have shaped the work of anthropologists since 1950.
***Prerequisite: ANTH 202, ANTH 203, and ANTH 401 or permission of the Department Head.***
*Note: Student may receive credit for one of ANTH 402, ANTH 400, or ANTH 890AQ*

ANTH 496AD

Methods for Honours Students

This course will familiarize students with qualitative research methodologies and the fundamentals of ethnographic fieldwork. It will prepare students for conducting independent research projects and acquaint them with both theoretical and practical aspects of research design.

ANTH 496AH

Museum Collections, Social Relations, and Object Biographies

Anthropologists have long since asserted that the lines between people and things are culturally variable. Based on this premise, this course examines the ways in which objects, and particularly objects kept in museums and galleries, relate to persons and how they are essential in creating and maintaining relationships between people.
***Permission of department head required to register.***

ANTH 496AI

Anthropology of Tattooing

Taking as its starting point Polynesian tattoo traditions, this course investigates the social, cultural, aesthetic, and other dimensions of marking the human body, and how practitioners and scholars have attempted to understand and explain these practices.
**Permission of department head required to register.**

ANTH 498

Honours Thesis

An original exposition of a topic approved by the department.
** Permission of the Department Head required to register. **

ANTH 499

Honours Thesis

An original exposition of a topic approved by the department.
** Permission of the Department Head required to register. **

ANTH 800

Anthropology Seminar

A seminar devoted to the study of special topics and reports of research projects.

ANTH 809

Selfhood and Morality

This couse examines the history, the theories, the debates and the ethnographic sources of the anthropological study of selfhood and morality, with a strong focus on issues of agency, intentionality and sociality. Course work will involve analysis of theoretical writings, ethnographic accounts, films, and pertinent works of literature.

ANTH 839

Key Amazonianist Debates

This course examines key debates in the anthropological study of indigenous Amazonian peoples. It focuses on fertile debates concerning human ecology, social organization and historical population processes in amazonia, and native understandings of sociality, cosmology, selfhood, morality and emotions. The course also addresses issues in political and economic anthropology.

ANTH 853

Advanced Ethnographic Research

This course explores the various ways that socio-cultural anthropologists conduct ethnographic fieldwork, and the methodological, epistemological and ethical issues that they face in their research.

ANTH 890AL

Advanced Anthropology of Gender

This reading course is an enriched, graduate level course. The student will study the relationship between gendered forms of political and economic empowerment and textile weaving cooperatives in Latin America.

ANTH 890AN

Anthropology of Performance

This directed reading course will examine key theoretical approaches concerning performance as a cultural practice that both reproduces and contests social values and norms. Students will submit bi-weekly reading reports to be discussed in two-hour seminars. A substantial final paper is required in lieu of an exam at the end of the semester.

ANTH 890AO

Anthropology of Religion

This advanced course is designed to familiarize graduate students with classical and contemporary approaches to the anthropological study of religion. Students and the instructor will meet monthly to discuss written responses to assigned readings. A major essay will be required at the end of the course in lieu of an final exam.

ANTH 890AP

Advanced Anthropology of Landscape

This course will explore the relationship between persons and places, theorizing about the salience of 'routes and roots' from various perspectives. Based on contemporary theory (e.g. Bourdieu, Ingold, Clifford, Jackson) landscapes will be analysed as cultural constructs that allow insights to gender, ethics, cosmology, personhood, and local history.

ANTH 890AQ

Advanced Theory in Anthropology since the 1950s

An in-depth exploration of some of the principal schools of thought that have shaped the work of anthropologists since 1950.
* Note: Student can not receive credit for both ANTH 890AQ and ANTH 402. *

ANTH 890AT

Biopolitics, Governmentality, and Neoliberalism

This graduate-level seminar will focus on key theoretical readings in the area of biopolotics, governmentality, and neoliberalism. The class will include foundational texts from Foucault and include essays and articles to supplement the core texts. Students will learn to synthesize key theoretical concepts and apply these concepts to empirical examples.

ANTH 890AU

The Ethnography of the Massim Region

This course provides detailed knowledge of the Massim Region of Papua New Guina, a "classic" field in Anthropology since 1922, when Bronislaw Malinowski started to publish about the Trobriand Islands. A focus will be on the Southern part of this region, where the Dobu language is used. Since the library does not have much material, my own collection will be used to teach this class.

ANTH 890AW

New Melanesian Ethnography: a review of theory

This course focuses on texts belonging to this category of theory, in particular by by Roy Wagner, Marilyn Strathern, Debbora Battaglia, Joel Robbins, Alex Golub, Jerry Jacka, Justin Shaffner, and others. The student will be assisted in considering the application of New Melanesian Ethnography to their own work.

ANTH 890AX

Anthropology of Sociability

This reading course will critically examine recent theories concerned with human group formation, communing, sociability, hierarchy maintenance, and interaction. The objective is to familiarize the student with current theoretical and ethnographic explorations of these phenomena by anthropologists and other social scientists.

ANTH 890AY

Advanced Theories in Posthumanist Anthropology

This graduate-level reading course will focus on key theoretical readings in the area of non-anthropocentric human and social sciences, redefining the social as a collective of humans and non-humans, and including animals, plants, and other subjects. The class will include foundational texts ranging from science studies to feminist theory to philosophy as well as anthropology. The student will learn to synthesize key theoretical concepts and apply these concepts to empirical examples.

ANTH 890AZ

Ethnography of Circumpolar Peoples

This course surveys ethnographic, archaeological, and archival literatures on the Circumpolar North, focusing on selected cultures from Alaska, Northern Canada, Greenland, Northern Scandinavia, and Northern Russia. It discusses the methods and theory of the region’s ethnography and provides foundational historical and sociological background for graduate students intending to work in (and/or on) the North.

ANTH 890BA

Contemporary Theory and its Applicability

A course to discuss thesis-relevant theory and contemporary approaches to Sociocultural Anthropology. Students experiment with arguments and gain a deep understanding of theory and how to use it for building their arguments.

ANTH 890BB

Advanced Analytical Approaches to Archaeological Textiles

The course focuses on laboratory methods for archaeological textile (fibre and perishables) analysis. Topics include fundamental approaches to structural identification, cataloguing, and documentation. Course content covers the current state of research in this field, and students will develop an understanding of analytical techniques.

ANTH 890BC

Ethnography and Historical Archaeology in Saskatchewan

Students will explore theoretical and methodological approaches employed in historical archaeology and ethnography, focusing on Metis people and historical archaeological materials. Course content familiarises students with multidisciplinary approaches to historical documents, material culture analysis, and the ethnographic record of Saskatchewan’s Metis people, as well as how these approaches complement each other.

ANTH 890BD

Semiotics in More Than Human Anthropology

This course helps graduate students gain a footing in the literature of (bio-)semiotics, beyond conventional applications within linguistics. It reviews core voices ranging from linguistics, philosophy of mind, cognitive science, archaeology, computer science, anthropology, and other disciplines. Students are expected build on the provided roster of readings with their own discoveries of pertinent sources. This backbone of knowledge will equip students with a conceptual language to describe and analyze animal-, plant-, and landscape-human interactions documented in their own fieldwork. The course focuses on the concept of distributed cognition, which has spread to many disciplines, while paying homage to some of its foundational thinkers.

ANTH 890BE

Advanced Anthropology of Evil

This course is focused on examination of the major ideas and prominent figures in anthropological understandings of evil as a social construction. Historical and contemporary anthropological theory and research will be explored, debated, and problematized. There will be an emphasis placed on how concepts of evil can justify and enforce normative cultural systems.

ANTH 901

Research

Thesis research.