Prepares student in methods of data collection and interpretation. Selected topics related to consumption, commodities, exchange, and gender. Controversies over foragers and egalitarian societies. Focuses on the methods and strategies of biocultural and paleodemographic analysis. While it uses substantial bodies of archaeological data, the course is primarily a physical anthropology class.
Course stresses the identification of appropriate data sets and methods.
Topics offered will include strong methodological and theoretical components, combined with in-depth coverage of an areal or thematic subject. The methods, problems, and pitfalls in the application of anthropological knowledge, concepts, and techniques to understanding, facilitating, and evaluating planned change in human activities. The purpose of this course is twofold. The first is to introduce students to the nature of and theories concerning human conflict from the interdisciplinary perspectives of biology, psychology, social anthropology, and the history of warfare. The second is to introduce students to the science of conflict resolution and to the techniques of negotiation and mediation, with particular emphasis upon cross-cultural applications.