This course is focused on an archaeological exploration of the development of complex societies in Mesoamerica, with emphasis on subsistence and technology, architecture and art. Spanning several thousand years of history, we will look at the rise and fall of some of the most influential and popularly enduring societies and cultures that this vibrant part of the Americas produced, including the Olmec, Maya, Toltec, and Aztec, as well as their modern legacy.

The primary aim of this course is to introduce the peoples and cultures of the North Circumpolar Region through an ethnographic and anthropological study of the traditional cultures and contemporary peoples of the Circumpolar North. The focus will be on the comparative study of indigenous Arctic and sub-Arctic societies. It will examine both the archaeological and ethnological considerations of northern societies of the Old and New Worlds.

It is not always easy to separate fact from fiction in archaeology, and the human past has served as fertile ground for fraudsters, charlatans, and pseudoscientists of many stripes. Through the close examination of case studies, we will critically examine some of the most persistent (and popular) myths and mysteries concerned with the archaeological past. This course will demonstrate that a strong adherence to scientific investigation and hard evidence can uncover facts about prehistory that are as interesting as the myths.

This course examines the survival of indigenous and minority cultures in various societies. Anthropological perspectives on the relationships among race, class, culture and politics, and on genocide, ethnocide and the future of native peoples in the modern state are studied.

This course covers an anthropological perspective on some current situations of Indigenous peoples in Canada.

Basic principles of archaeology. Introduction to the nature, methods, and theory of anthropological archaeology, i.e. how archaeological remains are located, recovered, and interpreted. Emphasis in this course is on the principles of reconstruction of past societies from archaeological evidence.

This course covers the basics of our origins and all the spectacular biological diversity we see around us in the modern human species, from an anthropological perspective. Students will be introduced to fundamental concepts in evolutionary theory, genetics, demography, and the various ways that human diversity has been understood and interpreted. This course is an exciting overview of humans, biologically, from our origins to who we are today.

This course examines views on the ideology of racism, which correlates human physical and socio-cultural attributes. The use of racism to organize, define and explain domination and competition is covered along with a comparative study of historical and contemporary forms of race relations in selected societies and at an international level.

The comparative study of human society and culture, particularly nonwestern communities, with special attention to the family, social structures, economic and political institutions, religion, and processes of change.

This course studies mankind through primate and cultural evolution, symbolic systems, cultural theory and culture change.

This course is an ethnographic survey of First Peoples that focuses on the interplay between environment, economic, political, social and ideological systems and experience with the modern world.

An introductory archaeology course that provides an overview of New and Old World prehistory; spans the earliest origins of humans, the spread of anatomically modern humans, the development of hunting and gathering societies, the origins of food production, and the emergence of ancient urban societies.