ANTH 0538 - THE ARCHEOLOGIST LOOKS AT DEATH

Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
Pyramids, tombs, graves, skeletons, mummies: the stuff of adventure literature. But what can the dead truly reveal about life in the past? A great deal! This course explores deathways of past cultures from an anthropological perspective. Examining funerary practices ancient and recent from around the world, we investigate how peoples of the past treated their dead, ranging from mummification to spectacular royal burials to the genesis of the “America Way of Death.” In exploring how and why archaeologists study the ancient dead, we’ll examine the contributions of cutting-edge scientific approaches and the use the living make of the dead in creating ancestors, landscapes, memories and identities. We will also address the history, ethics, practices, and current controversies of investigating the archaeological dead and discuss some of the emerging ways in which study of the dead addresses social injustices.
Academic Career: Undergraduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: LG/SNC Elective Basis
Course Attributes: Asian Studies, DSAS Geographic Region General Ed. Requirement, DSAS Social Science General Ed. Requirement, SCI Polymathic Contexts: Global&Cross Cul GE. Req., SCI Polymathic Contexts: Soc/Behav. GE. Req.

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