Anthropology
14 courses · Las Positas College · 2026-2027 Catalog
Classes: Summer 2026 · Fall 2026
ANTR 1 Biological Anthropology
- Units
- 3
- Hours
- 54 hours lecture
- Transfers to
- CSU, UC
- C-ID
- ANTH 110
This course introduces the concepts, methods of inquiry, and scientific explanations for biological evolution and their application to the human species. Issues and topics will include, but are not limited to, genetics, evolutionary theory, human variation and biocultural adaptations, comparative primate anatomy and behavior, and the fossil evidence for human evolution. The scientific method serves as the foundation of the course.
ANTR 1L Biological Anthropology Laboratory
- Units
- 1
- Hours
- 54 hours laboratory
- Prerequisite
- ANTR 1, may be taken concurrently
- Transfers to
- CSU, UC
- C-ID
- ANTH 115L
This laboratory course is offered as a supplement to Introduction to Biological Anthropology either taken concurrently or in a subsequent term. Laboratory exercises are designed to introduce students to the scientific method and explore genetics, human variation, human and non-human primate anatomy and behavior, the primate/hominin fossil record and other resources to investigate processes that affect human evolution.
ANTR 2 Introduction to Archaeology
- Units
- 3
- Hours
- 54 hours lecture
- Transfers to
- CSU, UC
- C-ID
- ANTH 150
This course is an introduction to the study of concepts, theories, data and models of anthropological archaeology that contribute to our knowledge of the human past. The course includes a discussion of the nature of scientific inquiry; the history and interdisciplinary nature of archaeological research; dating techniques; methods of survey, excavation, analysis, and interpretation; cultural resource management; professional ethics; and selected cultural sequences.
ANTR 2L Archaeology Field Laboratory
- Units
- 1
- Hours
- 54 hours laboratory
- Prerequisite
- ANTR 2, may be taken concurrently
- Transfers to
- CSU, UC
This Archaeology Field Lab course offers hands-on field experience and artifact analysis. Students practice scientific archaeological recovery methods and techniques, including site planning, excavation, typology, cataloging, artifact recognition and reconstruction. In addition to gaining expertise in field research, students will examine and discuss techniques, tools and processes in cultural resource management.
ANTR 3 Cultural Anthropology
- Units
- 3
- Hours
- 54 hours lecture
- Transfers to
- CSU, UC
- C-ID
- ANTH 120
This course explores how anthropologists study and compare human cultures. Cultural anthropologists seek to understand the broad arc of human experience focusing on a set of central issues: how people around the world make their living (subsistence patterns); how they organize themselves socially, politically and economically; how they communicate; how they relate to each other through family and kinship ties; what they believe about the world (belief systems); how they express themselves creatively (expressive culture); how they make distinctions among themselves such as through applying gender, racial and ethnic identity labels; how they have shaped and been shaped by social inequalities such as colonialism; and how they navigate culture change and processes of globalization that affect us all. Ethnographic case studies highlight these similarities and differences, and introduce students to how anthropologists do their work, employ professional anthropological research ethics and apply their perspectives and skills to understand humans around the globe.
ANTR 4 Language and Culture
- Units
- 3
- Hours
- 54 hours lecture
- Transfers to
- CSU, UC
- C-ID
- ANTH 130
This introductory course serves as a foundation for understanding language from an anthropological perspective, addressing such core questions as how, what, when, where, why and with whom we communicate. This course surveys three core areas in linguistic anthropology--structural linguistics: phonetics, phonology, morphology and syntax, as well as the biocultural basis of language; historical linguistics: origins and evolution/change, dialects, and language families; and sociocultural linguistics: language acquisition in cultural context, emphasizing the relationship between language and culture, and issues of language conservation and loss.
ANTR 7 Native American Cultures of North America
- Units
- 3
- Hours
- 54 hours lecture
- Transfers to
- CSU, UC
Survey of ways of life of traditional North American Indian cultures in different geographical areas throughout North America prior to European contact and continuing today. Topics include prehistory of Native American cultures, cultural change in response to European contact, current Native American socio-economic conditions, recent legislation including NAGPRA, social movements and cultural renewal.
ANTR 8 World Prehistory in an Archaeological Perspective
- Units
- 3
- Hours
- 54 hours lecture
- Transfers to
- CSU, UC
Survey of world prehistory as reconstructed through archaeological evidence. Topics include Paleolithic cultural practices from early tool use and mobile communities through settled living in complex agricultural societies to the establishment, rise and collapse of the first major civilizations in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, the Americas and Oceania. Subsistence, economic networks, social systems, power distributions, symbols and ideology will be discussed, as well as ecological effects of urbanization in the past.
ANTR 12 Magic/Religion/Witchcraft/Healing
- Units
- 3
- Hours
- 54 hours lecture
- Prerequisite
- Eligibility for ENGL C1000
- Transfers to
- CSU, UC
Cross-cultural perspectives on spirituality, religious practice, myth, ancestor beliefs, witchcraft and the variety of religious rituals and practitioners found in the cultures of the world. Examination of the cosmologies of different cultures through the anthropological perspective. Emphasis is placed on how knowledge of the religious practices and beliefs of others can help us to understand the multicultural world in which we live. Comparison of the ways in which diverse cultures confront the large and fundamental questions of existence: those dealing with the meaning life, birth and death, and with the relationship of humans to each other and to their universe.
ANTR 13 Introduction to Forensic Anthropology
- Units
- 3
- Hours
- 54 hours lecture
- Prerequisite
- Eligibility for ENGL C1000
- Transfers to
- CSU, UC
Introductory course in the application of biological anthropology and archaeology to the medico-legal process with an emphasis on the identification of human skeletal remains. Emphasis upon the ethical treatment and legal framework of human remains both past and present. Includes basic human osteoology and odontology, assessment of age at time of death, sex, ancestry, trauma analysis, pathology, and general physical characteristics including height and weight based upon minimal skeletal remains. Estimation of time since death, decomposition, surface/sub-surface recovery, crime scene analysis, animal scavenging, and identification procedures.
ANTR 29A Independent Study, Cultural Anthropology
- Units
- 0.5-2
- Hours
- 108 hours laboratory
- Transfers to
- CSU
Students choose a topic to research within the field of cultural anthropology and, with the guidance of the instructor, produce a final product to deliver the results of their findings.
ANTR 29B Independent Study, Biological Anthropology
- Units
- 0.5-2
- Hours
- 108 hours laboratory
- Transfers to
- CSU
Students choose a topic to research within the field of biological anthropology and, with the guidance of the instructor, produce a final product to deliver the results of their findings.
ANTR 29C Independent Study, Archaeology/Prehistory
- Units
- 0.5-2
- Hours
- 108 hours laboratory
- Transfers to
- CSU
Students choose a topic to research in the field of archaeology or human prehistory and, with the guidance of the instructor, produce a final product to deliver the results of their findings.
ANTR 29D Independent Study, Linguistic Anthropology
- Units
- 0.5-2
- Hours
- 108 hours laboratory
Students choose a topic to research within the field of linguistic anthropology and, with the guidance of the instructor, produce a final product to deliver the results of their findings.