Emily M. Dean

Course Information

Fall Semester 2007

Cultural Anthropology

ANTH 1010 – 01, CRN 31901
Dr. Emily Dean
MWF 3:00-3:50 pm, PE 128
This course is a General Education course and is paired with UNIV 1000. It is also a required course for the Anthropology minor and counts as a Sociology elective.

Are you interested in exploring ‘foreign’ cultures and learning about the diversity of the human experience around the globe? Cultural Anthropology is concerned with the cross-cultural analysis of similarities and differences in social phenomena such as marriage practices, family structure, gender relations, economic strategies, and religious beliefs. This course introduces the key concepts of the discipline through lectures, films, and class discussions of cultures from the Americas, Africa, Europe, Polynesia, and Asia. Homework assignments and class discussions are intended to foster multicultural understanding as well as encourage self-reflection and critical analyses of our own world views and cultural beliefs.

Biological Anthropology

SOC 4700 – 01, CRN 32578
Dr. Emily Dean
MWF 1:00-1:50 pm, SCI 128
Biological Anthropology is a required course for the upcoming Anthropology minor and also counts as a Sociology elective.

Are you intrigued by the primate studies of Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey? Fascinated by the latest discoveries of ancestral humans in Africa? Have you ever wondered what accounts for the physical variation we see in human groups? This course examines these issues as well as offering an anthropological perspective on important questions such as:

What does it mean to be human?
Where did we come from?
When and how did we evolve?
Why are we the way we are?
Why do humans share so many characteristics, yet vary in so many other ways, and what is the significance of these similarities and differences?

Native American Cultures

SOC. 4700-02, CRN 31989
Dr. Emily Dean
TR 1:00-2:20 pm, SCI 230
Counts as an upper division elective for Sociology and for Anthropology.

This seminar adopts an anthropological perspective to examine indigenous cultures of North, Central, and South America. We address pre-contact culture history; the experience of colonialism; struggles for indigenous sovereignty; racial, ethnic, and tribal identity; religious traditions; the significance of the landscape; and struggles to preserve ‘traditional’ cultures and languages. In addition to class discussions and lectures, we will go on at least one field trip, hear from guest speakers, watch films, and attend relevant cultural events.

Sociology and Anthropology of Religion

SOC. 3850-01, CRN 30780
Dr. Emily Dean
MWF 9:00-9:50, SCI 127
Counts as an upper division elective for Sociology and for Anthropology.

This course is an introduction to the Anthropology and Sociology of Religion. We begin with a review of sociological and anthropological perspectives on the origins, functions, and social roles of religious beliefs and practices. The remainder of the course is spent exploring various topics within the anthropology of religion – such as mythology and creation stories, religious taboos, notions of ritual contamination and purity, rituals and rites of passage, religious pilgrimage, altered states of consciousness, ‘shamanism,’ magic and witchcraft – each illustrated by ethnographic studies from around the world.