2006-08 Course Descriptions - Catalog - University of Oklahoma

The Uni ver sity of Oklahoma 2006-2008 Gen eral Cat a logAnthropology (ANTH)processes of evolutionary change; theory and method ofpaleoanthropological research; primate archaeological/fossil record,emphasizing the evolution of hominoids and hominids; analysis andinterpretation of fossil records; and major trends, issues, and debates inpaleoanthropology. No student may earn credit for both 4553 and 5553.(Irreg.)G5563 Medicine and Society. Prerequisite: 5023 or 5273. Currenttheoretical concerns in medical anthropology examined throughinvestigations of six topical areas: representations of sickness, medicine andsocial control, medical pluralism and ethnomedicine, the politics ofreproduction, transcultural psychiatry, and the political economy of healthcare. Emphasis is on the social construction of the experience of sicknessand the health ramifications of sociopolitical processes. (Irreg.)G5573 Political Anthropology. Prerequisite: 5023, 5273, or permission ofinstructor. Focuses on political systems and actions of nonwestern societies,and considers past and present theoretical approaches to the discipline.Also considers notions of power, authority, and legitimacy in varioussocieties and at different social levels, political actions, the growth and roleof bureaucracies, colonies, and encapsulated groups. (F)G5583 Mobility and Sedentism. Prerequisite: graduate standing. Focus onthe concepts of mobility and sedentism in the archaeological record. Theconcepts are defined and discussed in their many forms, and therelationships between the mobility/sedentism continuum and other factorssuch as the use of agriculture, population size, the natural environment,social organization, skeletal impacts, ritual, and kinds of artifacts areconsidered. Appropriate ethnographic literature is used extensively. (Irreg.)G5613 Morphosyntax. Prerequisite: 5013. This course will familiarize thestudent with morphological and syntactic phenomena from a large array oflanguages. Morphological processes, inflectional and derivation,grammatical categories, and problems in morphemic analysis will becovered. Syntactic phenomena covered includes cliticization, nounincorporation agreement, valence, causation, subordination structures, andhead/dependent and word order typologies. (Sp)G5623 Descriptive Linguistic Methods I. Prerequisite: Graduate standingor permission of instructor. May be repeated; maximum credit six hours.This course is an introduction to field methods in linguistic anthropology,with emphasis on the preliminary phases of documenting indigenouslanguages. Course begins with the elicitation of basic vocabulary beforeprogressing to the analysis of sound patterning, grammatical patterning,and elementary sentence structures. Also covers the development ofwriting systems for previously unwritten languages. (Irreg.)G5633 Descriptive Linguistic Methods II. Prerequisite: 5623 orpermission of instructor. May be repeated; maximum credit six hours.Continued exploration of field methods in linguistic anthropology, withemphasis on developing the materials for a dictionary, grammaticaldescription and morphology and syntax of language introduced in 5623.Also covers computerized databases. (Irreg.)G5653 Paleoethnobotany. Prerequisite: graduate standing. The study ofpeople and plants in the past. Discussion of types of anthropologicalquestions that can be answered, the types of data studied, and the analyticapproaches used. Emphasis will be on macroplant remains, mostly seedsand woods, and development of basic laboratory skills. Laboratory (Irreg.)G5663 Native Peoples of the Plains (Slashlisted with 4663). Prerequisite:5023 and permission of instructor. An ethnographic and historical survey ofthe native peoples of the Plains culture area of North America. No studentmay earn credit for both 4663 and 5663. (Irreg.)G5683 Prehistoric Human Ecology. Prerequisite: Graduate standing. Theinteractions between humans and their environments are critical forhuman survival and have been of anthropological interest for decades.Prehistoric human ecology is studied through a variety of approaches.Along with a discussion of human ecology as a set of theoreticalapproaches, we will deal with specific case studies. The class is not focusedupon paleoenvironmental reconstructions nor is it a lab course dealing withanalysis of environmental data. (Irreg.)G5703 Geoarcheology. Prerequisite: graduate standing. Addressessystematic ways of describing and recording soils and/or geological depositsin which archeological sites are found. Skills emphasized in class will beapplicable to evaluating the taphonomic integrity of buried archeologicalsites and to preliminarily assessing their age and the environmentalconditions during and after their habitation by people. (Sp)G5743 Anthropology and American Indians. Prerequisite: Graduatestanding. This course is intended to increase the understanding ofAmerican Indians and their relationship with American anthropology fromabout 1846 to the present. Through readings and discussion, an attemptwill be made to open a dialogue between the field of anthropology andAmerican Indians and bridge the gap of misunderstanding betweenscholars, non-Indians, and Indians. (Irreg.)G5783 Ceramics in Archaeology. Prerequisite: graduate standing. Thetheoretical frameworks surrounding the analysis of ceramics in archaeologyare discussed. Topics considered may include analytic methods, origins,mobility and sedentism, function, production, gender, specialization,distribution, style, ethnicity, household size, ideology, and social identity.(Irreg.)G5803 Theories of Identity. Prerequisite: 5023 or 5273. Considers therelationship between ethnicity and other social categories on processessuch as race, peoplehood, culture, tradition, heritage, nationality, religion,gender, and class. (Sp)G5813 Archaeology of North America (Slashlisted with 4813). Prerequisite:1113 or junior standing. A course in the prehistory of the American Indian.Study of the prehistory of North America north of Mexico. Considerationof the various archeological areas of the continent in terms of theprehistoric sequence of events from the earliest times up to Europeancontact. No student may earn credit for both 4813 and 5813. (Irreg.)G5823 Contemporary Native American Ethnology. Prerequisite: 5023 or5233. Examines anthropological approaches to developments in nativeAmerican communities since the 1930s. Topics to be examined includepolitical reorganization since the Self-Determination Act, fourth worldstrategies via the nation-state, imposed identities, ritual revitalization,hunter-gatherer adaptations, economic development, and language incultural context. (F)G5833 Theories of Social Organization. Prerequisite: 5023 or 5273. Asurvey of current approaches to the description and analysis of socialinteraction between community members. Emphasis is placed ondistinguishing intra-community interaction from inter-communityinteraction. (Sp)G5843 Cross-Cultural Study of Sex, Gender and Sexuality (Slashlistedwith 4843). Prerequisite: junior standing. A consideration of ethnographicmaterial that challenge anthropological understandings of the relationshipamong sex, gender, and sexuality. Materials will include “third gender”ethnographic material that has emerged in recent years; community andother studies that suggest gender diversity and complexity in communitiesthat we might label “homosexual”; and anthropological studies oftranssexual and transgender phenomena. No student may earn credit forboth 4843 and 5843. (Irreg.)G5863 Archaeology of the Southeast (Slashlisted with 4863).Prerequisite: 1113, 2113. A study of the prehistoric and early historicNative American culture histories. Some attention will be given to historicAfrican and European cultures in the Southeast. Emphasis will be placed onlong-term social change, pan-regional trends and colonial transformations.Graduate students will be expected to lead discussions, do 75 percentmore reading and write a longer research paper. No student may earncredit for both 4863 and 5863. (Sp)G5893 Topics in Archaeology. May be repeated; maximum credit 12hours. Topics will vary. Laboratory (F, Sp)G5913 Topics in Biological Anthropology. Prerequisite: 1113 orpermission. May be repeated with change of topic; maximum credit 12hours. An opportunity for a seminar with research paper for the graduatemajor with a special interest in biological anthropology. Laboratory (F, Sp)G5923 Lithic Technology and Analysis. Prerequisite: 6713. Instructsstudents in identification of kinds and sources of stone used prehistoricallyon the Southern Plains and their eastern border and helps students developskills in flintknapping as an aid to the process of analyzing archaeologicalmaterials. (Irreg.)G5933 Advanced Lithic Technology and Analysis. Prerequisite: 5923.Examines the literature on the identification of lithic materials, fracturemechanics, flintknapping, and use wear studies and the application of thisknowledge to specific research problems. (Irreg.)G5943 Grasslands Adaptations. Prerequisite: Graduate standing.Evolutionary theory as applied to grassland adaptations. Topics includegrassland ecology, bison ecology, climactic changes, and horticulturaladaptations. The focus is on the North American plains. (Irreg.)G5973 Introduction to Faunal Analysis (Slashlisted with 4973). Prerequisite:graduate standing. An introductory-level at animal bone analysis asperformed by archaeologists and zoo archaeologists. The bones of birds, fish,Course Descriptions 14