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  Craig Palmer, cultural anthropologist

Teaching

  
   
 
Anthropology 2030: Cultural Anthropology

This course will introduce you to cultural anthropology through lectures (including a description of my own fieldwork in Newfoundland, Canada), films, a condensed textbook, and two ethnographies. Through these materials we will explore the universal aspects of human behavior (such as kinship, cooperation and competition, marriage, and religion) and how different social, ecological, demographic, and historical conditions influence those behaviors. We will also examine the importance of social change in both western and non-western contexts. In addition, the readings will allow us to explore differences in subject, method, and anaylysis among individual anthropologists.

Anthropology 8687: Seminar in Cultural Dynamics: Anthropological Theories of Religion

Anthropologists have always bee fascinated by the diverse religious behavior of people in cultures around the world. This course critically examines the explanations anthropologists have proposed for such behaviors as witchcraft, shamanism, magic, sacrifice, ancestor worship, divination, and totemism. Explanations will include those put forth by some of the leading figures in the history of anthropology (e.g., Tylor, Malinowski, Evans-Pritchard) as well as new explanations bsed on recent advances in evolutionary theory.

Anthropology 3003: Topics in Anthropology: Evolution of Human Behavior

This course looks at recent attempts to use evolutionary theory to explain why humans are the way they are. Evolutionary concepts such as reciprocal altruism, kin selection, parental investment theory, self-deception, reproductive strategies, and costly signaling theory will be applied to such aspects of human life as mating, parenting, friendship, competition, politics, and religion.

Anthropology 4600/7600: Ethnographic Studies of Selected Cultures: Peoples of Canada

The course examines both large and small sub-cultures of Canada through a variety of readings and films. Readings will provide overviews of the contemporary dominant cultures of Canada, insight into the lives of recent immigrants, and in depth ethnohistorical studies of several First Nations. The course will focus on potential fieldwork opportunities in Canada.

Newfoundland Fishermen
Golden Bay, Newfoundland