HUMAN ECOLOGY MINOR
The Minor in Human Ecology focuses on understanding the relationship between humans and their environment, including long-term human adaptation and evolution, human impacts on the environment, responses to climate change, the emergence of social complexity, agriculture, food security, and resource extraction and environmental degradation such as mining and pollution. The Minor in Human Ecology prepares students to address pressing issues involving the human-environment relationship and obtain employment in public archaeology, ecology, natural history, education, public health, social ecology, and related fields.
The Minor in Human Ecology consists of six courses totaling 18 credits . This includes two required courses that provide basic knowledge of the human-environmental interface. Students can then choose among three intermediate courses depending upon their interests within Human Ecology. Finally, students can choose three electives from a number of other courses within the department that address human ecology, listed below.
The Minor in Human Ecology can be easily combined with Majors in other departments. If combined with a Major in Anthropology, four of the six courses (12 of the 18 credits) can overlap between the Major and the Minor and only 2 extra courses (6 extra credits) are required.
Requirements for the Minor in Human Ecology
Two required courses:
ANTH 102 Introduction to Human Evolution
ANTH 103 Introduction to Archaeology
Plus one of the following courses:
ANTH 201 Essentials of Cultural Anthropology
ANTH 240 Essentials of Archaeology
ANTH 260 Essentials of Biological Anthropology
Three elective courses:
Note: only one of these may be an “essentials” course, i.e., Anth 201, 240, 260; and only one of these may be a “topics” or “seminar” course, i.e., Anth 259, 290, 290W, 279, 290, 290W, 330, 350, and 370.
ANTH 201 Essentials of Cultural Anthropology
ANTH 240 Essentials of Archaeology
ANTH 241 The Aztecs, Maya, and Olmecs
ANTH 243 Archaeology of North America
ANTH 245 Archaeology of South America
ANTH 246 Archaeology of the Near East
ANTH 246W Archaeology of the Near East Writing Intensive
ANTH 247 Archaeology of Africa
ANTH 248 World of the Vikings
ANTH 249 Topics in Archaeological Area Studies
ANTH 256 Archaeology of Food
ANTH 259 Topics in Archaeology
ANTH 260 Essentials of Biological Anthropology
ANTH 262 The Nonhuman Primates
ANTH 264 Faunal Analysis
ANTH 270 Evolutionary Medicine
ANTH 271 Human Biology
ANTH 279 Topics in Biological Anthropology
ANTH 302 Ecology and Culture
ANTH 340 Archaeological Method and Theory
ANTH 342 Origins of Complex Society
ANTH 350 Seminar in Archaeology
ANTH 361 Human Variation
ANTH 361W Human Variation Writing Intensive
ANTH 362 Human Paleontology
ANTH 363 Interpreting the Human Skeleton
ANTH 368 Evolution and Human Behavior
ANTH 369 Primate Behavior and Ecology
ANTH 370 Seminar in Biological Anthropology
ANTH 375 The Human-Primate Interface