ANT 348 Bone Rooms: Practice and Ethics in Skeletal Studies
Human and animal bones and teeth are like maps, and they reveal their secrets to those who can read them. These skeletons give us unparalleled insights into the past and present of our species: how we evolved; why we look the way we do; how we developed our societies, cultural practices, and individual identities; how we produce our food; and how we relate to our environments. This course is a hands-on, immersive class in which you will work with human skeletal casts and real animal bones to learn about fundamental methods in skeletal analyses and how they are applied by archaeologists, anthropologists, forensic specialists and medical professionals to solve real-world and present problems. Through the process, we will also explore the history of skeletal studies in the United States and Western Europe and examine the complicated and ever-shifting ethical and legal landscape governing such studies in the United States.