6.2 DEPARTMENT OF
ANTHROPOLOGY (ANT)
Professor Michael Dean Murphy, Chairperson
Office: 19 ten Hoor Hall
The Department of Anthropology of The University of Alabama offers
programs leading to the master of arts degree and the doctor of
philosophy degree. These programs seek to furnish a balanced view of
anthropological inquiry by means of intensive training in the
literature, methods, techniques, and skills required for research in
anthropology. The M.A. builds on the inherent strengths of
medium-sized departments—the ability to provide necessary background
through small lecture courses and specialized training through the
tutorial format of seminars and individually directed research
projects. In short, the M.A. program provides students with a
scholarly comprehension of the discipline, practical experiences in
anthropological research situations, and the initial competency
required of a professional anthropologist. Additionally, an
inter-institutional program leading to the master's degree is
offered in cooperation with the Department of Anthropology of The
University of Alabama at Birmingham. See specific details at the UA
departmental website:
http://www.as.ua.edu/ant.
The Ph.D. curriculum builds on the strengths of the master's degree
program by concentrating on two emphases: 1) the archaeology of
complex societies, pertaining to the emergence and spread of early
civilizations in the Americas, and 2) medical anthropology, the
study of the influence of social relations and culture on
psychological and biological adaption. The doctoral program is
designed to prepare graduates with the skills needed to move easily
into either academic or non-academic positions.
Admission Requirements
Students seeking M.A. degrees in anthropology at The University
of Alabama must satisfy departmental entrance and examination
requirements. An acceptable score on the Graduate Record Examination
general test is required for admission. Students seeking Ph.D.
degrees must have already completed an M.A. in anthropology, either
at Alabama or elsewhere, before undertaking doctoral work. Students
are required to have taken graduate-level coursework in at least
three of the four subdisciplines in anthropology before being
admitted to the Ph.D. program.
General Degree Requirements
For the M.A. degree, each student must complete a minimum of 30
credit hours in courses numbered 500 or above. Without special prior
approval of the student's advisor, the student's committee, and the
director of graduate studies, neither ANT 598 Individual
Investigations nor ANT 599 Thesis Research will count toward the 30
hours.
All M.A. graduate students must successfully complete a core program
consisting of one graduate course in at least three of the four
fields of anthropology: ANT 636 Social Structure or ANT 641 Culture,
ANT 501 Anthropological Linguistics, ANT 670 Principles of Physical
Anthropology, and ANT 625 Survey of the History of Archaeology. In
addition, the seminar course ANT 600 Research Methodology is
required.
Additional requirements include a comprehensive examination to be
taken following the second semester in residence, and reading
knowledge of a foreign language or demonstration of a research skill
such as statistical analysis. Thesis and non-thesis options are
available and the specific requirements for these options are
published on the department's website:
http://www.as.ua.edu/ant. The
M.A. degree will be conferred by The University of Alabama.
For the Ph.D. program each student must complete 48 credit hours in
courses numbered 500 or above. No more than 24 hours can be
transferred from an M.A. program to the Ph.D. program. A reading
facility in one foreign language appropriate to the research topic
must be demonstrated. Knowledge of quantitative methods and other
advanced research skills must also be obtained through the required
seminar ANT 601 Advanced Research Methods in Anthropology.
Additional requirements include two core courses, each of which are
specific to the doctoral tracks. For the archaeology of complex
societies, these seminars are ANT 603 Theory and Method in
Archaeology and ANT 604 Seminar in the Archaeology of Complex
Societies. For biocultural medical anthropology, these seminars are
ANT 610 Theory and Method in Medical Anthropology and ANT 612
Seminar in Biocultural Anthropology. A preliminary examination must
be passed before undertaking dissertation research. Six to 12 months
of ethnographic or archaeological field work is expected, followed
by analysis and the writing of the dissertation. The dissertation
itself will then be presented and defended before the student's
committee and other interested faculty.
Course Descriptions
Prerequisites: Twelve hours in anthropology and graduate standing,
or permission of the instructor.
ANT 501 Anthropological Linguistics. Three hours.
The scientific study of natural language; phonology and grammar,
lexicon, and meaning; and the role of linguistics in anthropological
research. Offered once a year. Maxwell.
ANT 504 Analysis of Kinship Systems. Three hours.
Techniques, methods, and theories bearing on the analysis of kinship
semantics. Firsthand experience with the analysis of a particular
kinship system. Offered according to demand. Maxwell.
ANT 505 Culture, Mind, and Behavior. Three hours.
The cultural and linguistic basis of cognitive organization, local
systems of folk classification, and the collection and analysis of
data of shared cultural and social information. Offered according to
demand. Dressler, Maxwell.
ANT 507 Sexual Stratification in Society. Three hours.
An examination of the various roles women play in society, including
their relationships to the family, the economy, political
organizations, and the religious system. The analysis juxtaposes
women and men at all times. Offered according to demand. Singer.
ANT 508 Ancient Civilizations of Mesoamerica. Three hours.
A survey of the origin and development of Mesoamerican
civilizations. Offered according to demand. LeCount.
ANT 509 Ancient Maya Civilizations. Three hours.
Ancient Maya civilizations in Mexico and Central America from the
earliest inhabitants until the Spanish Conquest. Jacobi, LeCount.
ANT 511 Culture, Health, and Healing. Three hours.
Provides the student with an overview of health, illness, and
healing as they vary between and within cultural systems. DeCaro,
Dressler, Jacobi, Oths.
ANT 512 Peoples of Europe. Three hours.
A survey of the standards, customs, and beliefs that typify European
cultures. Offered according to demand. Galbraith, Murphy.
ANT 513 Peoples of Latin America. Three hours.
A survey of the standards, customs, and beliefs that typify Latin
American cultures. Offered according to demand. Dressler, Murphy,
Oths.
ANT 514 Peoples of Africa. Three hours.
A survey of the standards, customs, and beliefs that typify African
cultures. Offered according to demand. Singer.
ANT 515 Peoples of East Asia. Three hours.
A survey of the standards, customs, and beliefs that typify East
Asian cultures. Offered according to demand. Maxwell.
ANT 516 Peoples of Southeast Asia. Three hours.
A survey of the standards, customs, and beliefs that typify
Southeast Asian cultures. Offered according to demand. Maxwell.
ANT 517 Peoples of the Pacific. Three hours.
A survey of the standards, customs, and beliefs that typify the
cultures of Oceania. Offered according to demand.
ANT 518 Development in Non-Western Cultures. Three hours.
A theoretical and descriptive study of social change and development
in non-Western societies. Major emphasis will be on the effect of
change on indigenous institutions. Offered according to demand.
Singer.
ANT 519 Myth, Ritual, and Magic. Three hours.
A survey of the anthropological literature on religion, including
such topics as myth, ritual, magic, witchcraft, totemism, shamanism,
and trance states. Offered according to demand. Murphy.
ANT 520 Background of Anthropological Thought. Three hours.
An intensive review of the work of several early figures in the
development of social theory (e.g., Marx, Freud, Durkheim, and
Weber), emphasizing their relevance for modern anthropology. Offered
according to demand. Dressler, Murphy.
ANT 521 Ethnography. Three hours.
Planning, preparing, and executing ethnographic field work. Problems
of health, logistics, data recording, obtaining support, and ethics.
Observation and interviewing exercises. Offered according to demand.
Maxwell.
ANT 522 Topics in Cultural Anthropology: Political Anthropology.
Three hours.
An examination of the structure and organization of the political
process and the sources of political power in nonindustrial
societies. Offered according to demand. Singer.
ANT 523 Topics in Cultural Anthropology: Legal Anthropology.
Three hours.
An examination of legal theory and legal processes from an
anthropological perspective. Offered according to demand. Singer.
ANT 524 Topics in Cultural Anthropology: Economic Anthropology.
Three hours.
An examination of the economic structure and organization of
nonindustrial societies. Offered according to demand. Maxwell,
Singer.
ANT 526 The Archaeology of Eastern North America. Three
hours.
An examination of the origin and development of pre-Columbian and
early historic cultures of eastern North America. Offered according
to demand. Brown, Knight.
ANT 527 The Archaeology of Western North America. Three
hours.
An examination of the origin and development of pre-Columbian and
early historic cultures of western North America. Offered according
to demand.
ANT 528 Analytical Archaeology. Three hours.
Contemporary issues in concept formation, theory construction,
methods, and techniques. Offered according to demand. Brown, Knight.
ANT 529 The Archaeology of Europe. Three hours.
An examination of the origin and development of prehistoric and
early historic European cultures. Offered according to demand.
ANT 530 The Archaeology of Africa. Three hours.
An examination of the origin and development of prehistoric and
early historic cultures of sub-Saharan Africa. Offered according to
demand.
ANT 536 Social Anthropology. Three hours.
Social organization and structure, social life and institutions,
especially in nonliterate societies; and kinship, descent groups,
marriage, residence, and local group composition. Offered every
third semester. Dressler, Maxwell, Murphy, Oths.
ANT 537 Topics in Social Anthropology: The Analysis of Kinship.
Three hours.
Contemporary issues in the study of kinship, emphasizing semantics,
typology, lexicon, the psychological reality of kin terms, the
extensional hypothesis, and formal accounts. Offered according to
demand. Maxwell.
ANT 538 Topics in Social Anthropology: Social Structure.
Three hours.
An examination of contemporary issues in the study of descent
groups, marriage, residence, and local group composition in
nonindustrial societies. Offered according to demand. Dressler,
Krause, Maxwell, Murphy.
ANT 543 Advanced Field Investigations in Archaeology. Three
to twelve hours.
Directed field study in the excavation and analysis of
archaeological deposits. Each student must design and conduct a
research project, then adequately report the results. Off campus.
Brown, Knight.
ANT 550 Problems in Anthropology. Three to six hours.
Devoted to issues not covered in other courses. Offered according to
demand.
ANT 560 Anthropology and Natural History Museums. Three
hours.
Examines the historical connections between anthropology and natural
history museums in the U.S. Explores the present operation of such
museums and develops exhibits based on collection studies. Brown.
ANT 571 Fossil Man and Human Evolution. Three hours.
A survey of the discoveries, methods, and theories that provide the
background for modern research in macroevolution. Jacobi.
ANT 572 Seminar in Human Evolution. Three hours.
A combined lecture and seminar course that explores various theories
of hominid phylogeny, the theorists responsible, and the
considerations that influenced their thoughts. DeCaro, Jacobi.
ANT 573 Human Osteology. Four hours. Two hours' lecture, two
hours' laboratory.
A detailed introduction to human osteology, emphasizing the
identification of fragmentary remains and the criteria for
determination of age, sex, and race. Offered according to demand.
Jacobi.
ANT 575 Human Adaptability. Three hours.
An introduction to the biological bases of human adaptability.
Offered according to demand. Bindon, DeCaro, Jacobi.
ANT 576 Nutritional Anthropology. Three hours.
An introduction to anthropological inquiries in nutrition—including
food habits, food systems, and dietary variability—from a
cross-cultural perspective. Offered every fourth semester. Bindon.
ANT 598 Individual Investigations. Three hours.
Directed nonthesis research in archaeology, cultural anthropology,
anthropological linguistics, or physical anthropology.
ANT 599 Thesis Research. One to three hours.
ANT 600 Research Methodology. Three hours.
Prepares students in the scientific method and research skills used
in anthropology. Instruction emphasizes grant writing, study design,
interview and observation techniques, and the collection,
management, and analysis of data using a statistical software
package. Oths.
ANT 601 Advanced Research Methods in Anthropology. Three
hours.
This seminar is designed to refine doctoral students' background in
qualitative and quantitative research methods necessary for
dissertation research. Emphasis is placed on the integration of
qualitative and quantitative methods for students doing ethnographic
research, and techniques of numerical induction for archaeology
students. Dressler.
ANT 603 Theory and Method in Archaeology. Three hours.
An examination of contemporary archaeological theory and method and
their development during the 19th and 20th centuries. Blitz, Brown,
Knight, LeCount.
ANT 604 Seminar in the Archaeology of Complex Societies.
Three hours.
Contemporary issues in the archaeology of complex societies,
including different aspects of complexity and attempts to classify
and measure them. Blitz, Brown, Knight, LeCount.
ANT 610 Theory and Method in Medical Anthropology. Three
hours.
A detailed introduction to theory and method in medical
anthropology. Approaches include adaptation, biocultural,
psychoanalytic, stress, and other theoretical perspectives. Bindon,
Dressler, Jacobi, Murphy, Oths.
ANT 612 Seminar in Biocultural Anthropology. Three hours.
A biocultural overview of the anthropology of health. Topics include
biological and cultural approaches to various dimensions of human
health and illness. Bindon, Dressler, Jacobi, Murphy, Oths.
ANT 620 Prehistory of North America. Three hours.
An in-depth examination of the prehistory of the various areas of
North America, focusing on environmental and cultural influences
that affected ways of life. Blitz, Brown, Knight.
ANT 621 Native Americans in Ethnohistorical Perspective.
Three hours.
An examination of Indians and Eskimos of North America during the
historical period, focusing on the impact of European contact on
culture and society. Blitz, Brown, Knight.
ANT 625 Survey of the History of Archaeology. Three hours.
A critical examination of archaeology's history as a science, with
emphasis on intellectual trends, changes in method and theory, and
recent developments. Offered once a year. Blitz, Brown, Knight,
LeCount.
ANT 636 Social Structure. Three hours.
Social organization and structure, social life and institutions,
especially in nonliterate societies; and kinship, descent groups,
marriage, residence, and local group composition. Offered every
third semester. Dressler, Maxwell, Murphy, Oths.
ANT 640 Landmarks in Anthropological Research. Three hours.
This course examines seminal works in the history of anthropology.
Works may include books or smaller publications that exemplify
important developments in theory and method. Staff.
ANT 641 Culture. Three hours.
This seminar reviews past and contemporary theories and approaches
used in cultural anthropology. Dressler, Galbraith, Murphy, Oths.
ANT 667 Methods in Prehistoric Iconography. Three hours.
An exploration of anthropological and art-historical concepts as
applied to the problem of meaning in prehistoric representational
art. Knight.
ANT 670 Principles of Physical Anthropology. Three hours.
A series of seminars and lectures designed to refine the student's
knowledge of research on nonhuman primates, fossil hominids,
population genetics, and human variation and adaptation. Offered
once a year. Bindon, DeCaro, Jacobi.
ANT 698 Individual Investigations. One to nine hours.
Directed dissertation research in archaeology, cultural
anthropology, anthropological linguistics, or physical anthropology.
ANT 699 Dissertation Research. Three to fifteen hours.
UAB Course Descriptions
ANTH 600 Medical Anthropology.
Seminar addressing health care systems and theories
cross-culturally, including historical changes and examination of a
wide variety of simpler and more complex systems. (Taylor, Wheatley)
ANTH 601 Forensic Approaches to Osteology.
Applied human osteology, emphasizing ability to identify age, sex,
and population type of skeletal material. Effects of disease and
behavior on bones. (Wheatley)
ANTH 602 Classics in Anthropology.
Close reading of major classics in anthropological literature; to
include one each from the four main subfields of anthropology.
ANTH 603 As Others. See Us.
Joint American studies/international studies seminar that surveys
international perceptions of U.S. culture.
ANTH 605 Advanced Cultural Anthropology.
Critical review of theoretical approaches in cultural anthropology.
(Taylor)
ANTH 606 World Ethnography.
Kinship, economy, social control, religion, and ritual for peoples
in North America, South America, Africa, or Asia. Focus on one area.
(Taylor )
ANTH 607 Social Structure.
Theoretical works in political anthropology, economic anthropology,
or kinship. Emphasis varies according to the instructor.
ANTH 609 Advanced Archaeological Anthropology.
Principal theoretical approaches in 19th- and 20th-century
archaeology; historical, processual, and postprocessual.
ANTH 610 Advanced Physical Anthropology.
Human evolution, primatology, race, human genetics. Tasks performed
by physical anthropologists. (Wheatley)
ANTH 611 Field Archaeology. One to six hours.
Archaeological field and laboratory techniques, including
excavation, surveying, and artifact analysis and description;
general problems of archaeological interpretation.
ANTH 614 Geoarchaeology.
Survey of geological methods as applied to archaeological questions.
Practicum in geoarchaeological laboratory and analytic methods using
samples from archaeological sites in Alabama and the Middle East. (Brande)
ANTH 615 Ethnographic Field Methods. Three to six hours.
Classroom instruction and practical experience in techniques of
ethnographic fieldwork, including participant observation, household
surveys, structured and unstructured interviewing, and genealogies.
ANTH 621 Field School in Industrial Anthropology.
Students will be introduced to field excavation techniques, field
reconnaissance, and much of the technology used in this subfield of
historical anthropology. Field measurements will be taken using a
total station surveying instrument and GPS unit. Drawings and a
large area map of the survey area will be produced using civil
engineering software (PacSoft), CAD (AutoDesk Mini CAD), and GIS (ArcView).
ANTH 630 Animal Bone Archaeology. Three to six hours.
Introduction to methods and theories of zooarchaeological research.
Practical experience in processing, identification, and
interpretation of animal bone remains from archaeological sites.
ANTH 635 Ethnomedicine and Ethnopsychiatry.
Approaches and contributions of anthropology to the study of health,
sickness, and healing. Physical environment and human adaptations as
key determinants of health systems; culturally defined concepts of
sickness, health, and healing; healing as social, as well as
physiological, activity. Topics may include life stages, medical
knowledge among different human groups, impact of culture contact on
medical systems, ecological balance and population control, cultural
definitions and treatment of abnormal behavior, healers, health and
supernatural, social roles of the sick, and illness and social
control. (Taylor)
ANTH 642 Archaeology of the American Industrial Revolution.
Techniques for interpreting and documenting the archaeological and
other material remains of the American industrial revolution with a
particular emphasis on the blast furnaces, mines, and other sites in
the mineral region of central Alabama.
ANTH 650 Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Violence.
Social and cultural analysis of ethnicity and nationalist ideologies
particularly where these have led to violent confrontations within
modern nation-states. Considers primordialist versus constructionist
theories of difference; the varying weight to be attributed to
political, historical, and cultural factors in the study of
nationalism; and the politics of culture versus the culture of
politics. (Taylor)
ANTH 653 Primatology.
Biology, behavior, and distribution of living nonhuman primates with
emphasis on field studies of old-world monkeys and apes. (Wheatley)
ANTH 655 Archaeology of Alabama.
ANTH 664 Political Anthropology.
The comparative analysis of political structures and process
throughout the world, focusing especially on non-Western forms; a
survey of anthropological attempts to understand the complex
interplay of culture and power in human societies.
ANTH 675 Human Adaptability.
Introduction to the study of how humans adapt to their physical,
biological, and social environment. Reviews ecological, demographic,
nutritional, physiological, and health-related concepts and
considers applications to case studies. (Wheatley)
ANTH 680 Anthropology of Slavery and Servitude.
Slavery as a social and cultural phenomenon in context of a broader
investigation of relations of domination and exploitation in human
social life.
ANTH 691 Special Problems in Cultural Anthropology. Two to
six hours.
Supervised study of specified topic area; defined problem explored
in depth. Topics determined by student and instructor interest in
cultural anthropology.
ANTH 692 Special Problems in Archaeology. Two to six hours.
Supervised study of specified topic area; defined problem explored
in depth. Topics determined by student and instructor interest in
archaeology.
ANTH 693 Special Problems in Linguistics. Two to six hours.
Supervised study of specified topic area; defined problem explored
in depth. Topics determined by student and instructor interest in
linguistics.
ANTH 694 Special Problems in Physical Anthropology. Two to
six hours.
Supervised study of specified topic area; defined problem explored
in depth. Topics determined by student and instructor interest in
physical anthropology.
ANTH 699 Thesis Research. One to three hours.
Independent development of research project. Admission to candidacy.
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