Ampersand: What Makes us Human? An Anthropological Gateway to Environment, Culture, Health and Origins (ECHO)

3 units

“What Makes Us Human?” is a question that invites many answers, from reconstructing our origins as a biological species, to understanding the many ways in which people around the world have lived and continue to live with diverse cultural traditions, social institutions, and environmental adaptations. This course is a gateway to anthropological inquiry designed to initiate students into thinking like an anthropologist, challenging their understanding of universal human behaviors and concerns such as mobility and migration, food systems and biodiversity, and life in marginal natural and social environments. Through a combination of lectures and conversations with faculty, readings, and site visits, students will learn about the many ways in which anthropologists use scientific and humanistic methods to advance our understanding of human-environmental interactions.