ANTH 5328b / ARCG 5328b / NELC 7290b, Magic and Ritual in Ancient Egypt and the Near East  John Darnell

Introduction to ancient Egyptian and Near East magic and rituals with an overview on the use of magic and discussion of the different rituals and festivals.
MW 2:30pm-3:45pm

ANTH 5710a, Ethnography and Social Theory  Paul Kockelman

This seminar for first- and second-year Ph.D. students in Anthropology runs in tandem with the department’s reinvigorated EST Colloquium. The colloquium consists of public presentations by cutting-edge speakers—four or five each term—selected and invited by students enrolled in the seminar. In the seminar, students and the instructor discuss selected works (generally no longer than article-length) related to the topics presented by the colloquium speakers and engage in planning activities associated with organizing the EST Colloquium, including but not limited to developing readings lists, creating a viable calendar, curating the list of speakers, securing co-sponsorships, writing invitations, and introducing and hosting the speakers. Open to first- and second-year Ph.D. students in Anthropology only.  ½ Course cr
M 3:30pm-5:20pm

ANTH 5730a, Engaging Anthropology: Histories, Theories, and Practices  Lisa Messeri

This is the first course of a yearlong sequence for doctoral students in Anthropology and combined programs. Students are introduced to the discipline through theoretical, historical, and experimental approaches. In addition to gaining an expansive view of the field, students have the opportunity to hone foundational scholarly skills.
W 9:25am-11:15am

ANTH 5740b, Anthropological Imaginations  Louisa Lombard

This is the second course of a yearlong sequence for doctoral students in Anthropology and combined programs. The seminar explores anthropological imaginations as modes of experience, perception, and writing. Anthropology as a discipline has transformed from the frontline of colonial projects to critical reflections on power dynamics that produce and reproduce systems of oppression, injustice, and violence. Yet knowing and representing are never external to these power dynamics, and there is simply a vast unknowability of human and non-human experiences. How do we as anthropologists give meanings to the world out there that is so intertwined and complex beneath what we see and hear? How do we see what seems invisible and how to listen to silence? How do we account for our own implication in the encounters through which we experience and learn, and reflect upon? How do we weave stories through writing? While there are no right or wrong answers to these questions, in this seminar we explore how different imaginaries open up new possibilities as we embark on our ethnographic research.
W 1:30pm-3:20pm

ANTH 5750a, Research in Sociocultural Anthropology: Design and Methods  Douglas Rogers

The course offers critical evaluation of the nature of ethnographic research. Research design includes the rethinking of site, voice, and ethnographic authority.
T 9:25am-11:15am

ANTH 5824a, Politics of Memory  Yukiko Koga

This course explores the role of memory as a social, cultural, and political force in contemporary society. How societies remember difficult pasts has become a contested site for negotiating the present. Through the lens of memory, we examine complex roles that our relationships to difficult pasts play in navigating issues we face today. The course explores the politics of memory that takes place in the realm of popular culture and public space. It asks such questions as: How do you represent difficult and contested pasts? What does it mean to enable long-silenced victims’ voices to be heard? What are the consequences of re-narrating the past by highlighting past injuries and trauma? Does memory work heal or open wounds of a society and a nation? Through examples drawn from the Holocaust, the atomic bombing in Hiroshima, the Vietnam War, genocide in Indonesia, and massacres in Lebanon, to debates on confederacy statues, slavery, and lynching in the United States, the course approaches these questions through an anthropological exploration of concepts such as memory, trauma, mourning, silence, voice, testimony, and victimhood.
M 9:25am-11:15am

ANTH 5828b / RLST 8820b, Readings on Mind and Nature  Nancy Levene

Study of works on nature, history, reason, person. Readings vary from year to year.
M 3:30pm-5:20pm

ANTH 5848a, Medical Anthropology at the Intersections: Theory and Ethnography  Marcia Inhorn

Examination of narratives of gender in India. Folkloristic and anthropological approaches to gendered performance in story, song, and theater. Recent feminist examinations of television, film, advertising, and literature. Topics include classical epic (Ramayana, Shilapathigaram).
W 3:30pm-5:20pm

ANTH 5856a, Masculinity and Men's Health  Marcia Inhorn

This interdisciplinary seminar—designed for students in Anthropology; Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; and Global Health—explores in an in-depth fashion ethnographic approaches to masculinity and men's health around the globe. The course begins with two theoretical texts on masculinity, followed by eleven anthropological ethnographies on various dimensions of men's health and well-being. Students gain broad exposure to a number of exigent global men's health issues, issues of ethnographic research design and methodology, and the interdisciplinary theorizing of masculinity scholars in anthropology, sociology, and cultural studies. In particular, the course demonstrates how anthropologists studying men's health issues in a variety of Western and non-Western sites, including the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Asia, have contributed to both social theory and ethnographic scholarship of importance to health policy.
Th 3:30pm-5:20pm

ANTH 6136b / ARCG 6136b, Geoarchaeology: Earth and Environmental Sciences in Archaeological Investigations  Ellery Frahm

A survey of the numerous ways in which theories, approaches, techniques, and data from the earth and environmental sciences are used to address archaeological research questions. A range of interfaces between archaeology and the geological sciences are considered. Topics include stratigraphy, geomorphology, site formation processes, climate reconstruction, site location, and dating techniques.
HTBA

ANTH 6375a / ARCG 6375a, The Green Hell and the Mother Serpent: Amazonian Archaeology, Ethnography, and Politics  Richard Burger

Survey and seminar discussing the archaeology and ethnography of greater Amazonia, along with the political stakes of this heritage for modern Indigenous communities in the region. Introduces students to the varied geography and ecology of greater Amazonia, before delving into topics such as: the archaeological record of domestication and landscape investment by past Indigenous societies; the ethnographic and historical records of their descendants; the contested spheres of knowledge production in anthropology that underpins both of these records; and the modern political struggles that Indigenous communities face today amid deforestation and the pursuit of economic development.
HTBA

ANTH 6443a, Primate Behavior and Ecology  David Watts

Socioecology of primates compared with that of other mammals, emphasizing both general principles and unique primate characteristics. Topics include life-history strategies, feeding ecology, mating systems, and ecological influences on social organization.
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

ANTH 6665b / ARCG 6665b, Evolution of Human Diet  Jessica Thompson

This course examines human nutrition and subsistence behavior from an evolutionary perspective. It begins with human nutritional literature and discussions of our biological requirements, then moves into comparison of modern human dietary ecology with those of other primates, especially our closest living relatives, the great apes. We then turn to literature that demonstrates the methods and theoretical approaches that are currently used to reconstruct past diets. As we begin to follow the evidence for changes in subsistence in the hominin lineage, case studies using these methods are integrated into discussions of how we know what we do about past nutrition. The course spends time on key issues and debates such as changes from closed-habitat to open-habitat foraging, the origins of meat-eating, the role of extractive foraging in human social systems, variation in hunter-forager subsistence systems, the origins of domestication, and the phenomenon of fad diets in industrialized nations. The course is delivered in a seminar-style format, with key readings each week that follow topical themes, with assessment based on in-class participation, critical essays, and a final research project.
W 1:30pm-3:20pm

ANTH 6803b / AMST 7746b, Ethnographic Writing  Kathryn Dudley

This course explores the practice of ethnographic analysis, writing, and representation. Through our reading of contemporary ethnographies and theoretical work on ethnographic fieldwork in anthropological and interdisciplinary research, we explore key approaches to intersubjective encounters, including phenomenological anthropology, relational psychoanalysis, affect studies, and the new materialisms. Our inquiries coalesce around the poetics and politics of what it means to sense and sensationalize co-present subjectivities, temporalities, and ontologies in multispecies worlds and global economies. This is a core anthropology graduate program course; others admitted only by permission of the instructor.
T 1:30pm-3:20pm

ANTH 6841a / ENV 836a / HIST 8160a / PLSC 7790 / SOCY 7170a, Agrarian Societies: Culture, Society, History, and Development  Louisa Lombard and Marcela Echeverri Munoz

An interdisciplinary examination of agrarian societies, contemporary and historical, Western and non-Western. Major analytical perspectives from anthropology, economics, history, political science, and environmental studies are used to develop a meaning-centered and historically grounded account of the transformations of rural society. Team-taught.
W 1:30pm-3:20pm

ANTH 6842a, Histories and Ethnographies of the Corporation  Douglas Rogers

A survey of recent approaches to the study of corporations, with a focus on historical and anthropological perspectives. Topics include early modern corporations and colonialisms; states and corporations; labor; transformations of corporations in the neoliberal era; corporate “culture”; corporate philanthropy; and methodological considerations for conducting research on/in corporations. Case studies drawn from around the world and focused on the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Prerequisites: graduate student status and permission of the instructor.
Th 9:25am-11:15am

ANTH 7075b / ARCG 7075b, Anthropology of Mobile Societies  William Honeychurch

The social and cultural significance of the ways that hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads, maritime traders, and members of our own society traverse space. The impact of mobility and transport technologies on subsistence, trade, interaction, and warfare from the first horse riders of five thousand years ago to jet-propulsion tourists of today.
HTBA

ANTH 7116La / ARCG 7116La, Introduction to Archaeological Laboratory Sciences  Ellery Frahm

Introduction to techniques of archaeological laboratory analysis, with quantitative data styles and statistics appropriate to each. Topics include dating of artifacts, sourcing of ancient materials, remote sensing, and microscopic and biochemical analysis. Specific techniques covered vary from year to year.
W 1:30pm-4:30pm

ANTH 7150a / ARCG 7150a, Analysis of Lithic Technology  Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos

This course provides an introduction to the analysis of the chipped and ground stone tools found on archaeological sites. As a laboratory course, it includes hands-on instruction: we learn how to manufacture chipped stone tools out of obsidian. We begin by reviewing the development of chipped and ground stone tool technology from the earliest simple pebble tools to historical period tools. We discuss the relevance of lithics research to issues of subsistence, craft specialization, and trade. We also discuss how these artifacts are recorded, analyzed, and drawn, and we review related studies such as sourcing and use-wear analysis.
HTBA

ANTH 7185b / ARCG 7185b, Archaeological Ceramics I  Anne Underhill

Ceramics are a rich source of information about a range of topics including ancient technology, cooking practices, craft specialization, regional trade, and religious beliefs. This course provides a foundation for investigating such topics and gaining practical experience in archaeological analysis of ceramics. Students have opportunities to focus on ceramics of particular interest to them, whether these are low-fired earthen wares, or porcelains. We discuss ancient pottery production and use made in diverse contexts ranging from households in villages to workshops in cities. In addition we refer to the abundant ethnoarchaeological data about traditional pottery production.
HTBA

ANTH 7259b / ARCG 7259b, Social Complexity in Ancient China  Anne Underhill

This seminar explores the variety of archaeological methods and theoretical approaches that have been employed to investigate the development and nature of social complexity in ancient China. The session meetings focus on the later prehistoric and early historic periods, and several geographic regions are included. They also consider how developments in ancient China compare to other areas of the world. Most of the readings emphasize archaeological remains, although relevant information from early historical texts is considered.
W 9:25am-11:15am

ANTH 7272b / ARCG 7272b, Cities in Antiquity: The Archaeology of Urbanism  Piphal Heng

Archaeological studies of ancient cities and urbanism. Topics include the origin and growth of cities; the economic, social, and political implications of urban life; and archaeological methods and theories for the study of ancient urbanism. Case studies include ancient cities around the world.
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm

ANTH 7280a / ARCG 7280a, Archaeology of Religion  Richard Burger and Piphal Heng

The course explores archaeological approaches to the study of religion. While the term “religion” is hard to define, it is generally agreed that religious phenomena occur in almost all cultures and that this realm played a significant part in most prehistoric cultures. In order to provide a broad vision of this theme, the course begins by considering influential schools of thought on the definition, origins, and social significance of religious behavior. The course then reviews a variety of methods that scholars may use to reconstruct ancient beliefs and rituals. The course assesses the applicability and success of these methodologies across the broad spectrum of ancient cultures representing differing degrees of sociopolitical complexity. Finally, we explore case studies from a diverse range of ancient societies and consider the impact of religious behaviors within their broader cultural contexts.
TTh 1pm-2:15pm

ANTH 7297a / ARCG 7297a, Archaeology of East Asia  Staff

East and Southeast Asia have increasingly emerged as hotspots for global political, economic, and cultural interactions. What were the roots and social processes that gave rise to such systems? In this seminar, we explore archaeological evidence for the development of social and political organization and religious practices, using selected examples from East and Southeast Asia spanning approximately 5000 BCE to 1500 CE. We examine four key themes: (1) the origins and timing of plant and animal domestication, (2) the emergence and impact of early metallurgy, (3) patterns of interregional interaction, and (4) the rise of sociopolitical complexity. Using a comparative archaeological perspective—focusing on settlement patterns, urbanism, craft production, monumentality, and diverse material culture—we examine how both local factors and long-distance connections shaped these trajectories. We conclude the course with a reflection on the role of archaeology in contemporary society, particularly in countries where the past is actively curated, celebrated, and contested. No background in archaeology or East/Southeast Asian studies is required. Through short lectures, weekly discussions, student presentations, and a final research paper on selected case studies, students learn how archaeological research is conducted and interpreted. By the end of the term, students are able to outline the broad historical sequence of the region from the earliest food production through the mid-second millennium CE; identify major archaeological sites and their contributions to our understanding of domestication, metallurgy, and early urbanism; and compare the historical trajectories of East and Southeast Asian societies. The course also emphasizes critical thinking and analytical reasoning, encouraging students to evaluate evidence, interrogate interpretive frameworks, and formulate informed perspectives on the region’s past.
HTBA

ANTH 7818b / ER&M 6606b / SPAN 9718b / WGSS 7718b, Multi-Sited Ethnography: Trans-Atlantic Port Cities in Colombia and Spain  Eda Pepi and Ana Ramos-Zayas

Critical to colonial, imperial, and capitalist expansion, the Atlantic offers a dynamic setting for adapting ethnographic practices to address questions around interconnected oppressions, revolts, and revolutions that are foundational to global modernity. Anchored in a Spanish and a Colombian port city, this course engages trans-Atlantic “worlding” through a multi-sited and historically grounded ethnographic lens. Las Palmas, the earliest mid-Atlantic port and Europe’s first settler colony in Africa, and Cartagena, once the principal gateway connecting Spain and its American empire, illuminate urgent contemporary issues such as climate, displacement, inter-regional subjectivities, and commerce. During a spring recess field experience (March 8–16, 2026), students will immerse themselves for four nights each in Las Palmas and Cartagena, developing critical “tracking” skills that bridge ethnographic practice with cultural theory. Preparation for fieldwork includes an on-campus curriculum, organized around Cartagena and Las Palmas, and sessions with Yale Ethnography Hub faculty, covering different methodologies. As part of this broader programming, the curriculum delves as well into trans-Atlantic migrations from the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa that have transformed port cities, labor and aesthetic practices, class-making racial formations, and global geopolitics. After recess, the course shifts toward independent work, as students synthesize field-collected data and insights into a collaborative multimodal group project and individual ethnographic papers. Instructor Permission: Interested students must apply by November first via the course website. This course does not have a shopping period, but students may withdraw by the university deadlines in April. Prerequisite: Conversational and reading proficiency in Spanish. Readings are in English and Spanish, with assignments accepted in either language.
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm

ANTH 7853a / WGSS 7757a, Feminist Anthropology  Eda Pepi

This seminar explores the impact of feminist theory on anthropology and interdisciplinary ethnography, charting its influence from the decline of structural functionalism to the embrace of poststructuralist and post-colonial perspectives. It engages feminist contributions on pivotal debates over the universality of women's subordination, the denaturalization of kinship, and the reframing of gender and sexuality as performative, highlighting the intersection of the “sex/gender system” with other analytical categories on a global scale. Through the feminist reevaluation of kinship studies, once the bedrock of anthropology, the course takes up how traditional analyses of biological, social, and societal reproduction that treat politics, economy, kinship, and religion as distinct cultural domains naturalize power and inequality. This paradigm shift inspired empirically informed interdisciplinary analyses across the social sciences and humanities—including in women’s studies, Black and Latina studies, queer studies, masculinity studies, affect theory, and science and technology studies. As such, the seminar is also an invitation to participate in both hopeful and skeptical new visions of anthropology—to dream of an “otherwise” future for our and other fields.
F 3:30pm-5:20pm

ANTH 8512b, Current Topics in Anthropological Genetics  Serena Tucci

This course is a series of seminars on cutting-edge topics in the field of anthropological genetics. Topics include the use of modern and ancient DNA as powerful tools for studying human evolution, population history, and adaptation. The course also explores ethical and social implications of human genetic research and direct-to-consumer genetic testing. Students actively work through these topics, using readings, presentations, and class discussions. Students learn how genetic data can help us unlock our evolutionary past, how to interpret and communicate human genetic variation, and how to assess issues and challenges of conducting anthropological genetic research.
Th 1:30pm-3:20pm

ANTH 8513a or b / ARCG 8513a or b, Human Osteology  Eric Sargis

A lecture and laboratory course focusing on the characteristics of the human skeleton and its use in studies of functional morphology, paleodemography, and paleopathology. Laboratories familiarize students with skeletal parts; lectures focus on the nature of bone tissue, its biomechanical modification, sexing, aging, and interpretation of lesions.
HTBA

ANTH 8532a or b, Topics and Issues Primate Evolution  Staff

Examination of the evolutionary history of living and extinct primates. Focus is on major controversies in primate systematics and evolution. Topics include primate supraordinal relationships, euprimate origins, and anthropoid origins. Both morphological and molecular studies are considered.
HTBA

ANTH 8897a and ANTH 8898b / HIST 5804a and HIST 5805b / HSAR 6841a and HSAR 6842b / HSHM 7691a and HSHM 7692b, Topics in the Environmental Humanities  Paul Sabin

This is the required workshop for the Graduate Certificate in Environmental Humanities. The workshop meets six times per term to explore concepts, methods, and pedagogy in the environmental humanities, and to share student and faculty research. Each student pursuing the Graduate Certificate in Environmental Humanities must complete both a fall term and a spring term of the workshop, but the two terms of student participation need not be consecutive. The fall term each year emphasizes key concepts and major intellectual currents. The spring term each year emphasizes pedagogy, methods, and public practice. Specific topics vary each year. Students who have previously enrolled in the course may audit the course in a subsequent year. This course does not count toward the coursework requirement in history. Open only to students pursuing the Graduate Certificate in Environmental Humanities.  ½ Course cr per term
T 11:30am-1:20pm

ANTH 9655a, Directed Research in Evolutionary Biology  Staff

By arrangement with faculty.
HTBA

ANTH 9850a, Directed Research: Preparation for Qualifying Exam  Lisa Messeri

By arrangement with faculty.
HTBA

ANTH 9953a, Directed Research in Archaeology and Prehistory  Staff

By arrangement with faculty.
HTBA