ANSO 221 North of the Rio Grande: Indigenous People of North America

This is not a traditional course about Native Americans in North America. In this course, we will move beyond categorizing Native peoples, their cultural beliefs and practices, and historical experiences according to familiar anthropological categories (e.g., “prehistory” and “band, tribe, chiefdom, state”). Instead, you are encouraged to question conventional assumptions and stereotypes about and depictions of indigenous peoples and cultures of North America. We will discuss the social, economic, and political facets of what make these communities complex whether they are hunter-gatherers, horticulturalists, and/or capitalists. Key topics, such as the historical development of the field of archaeology and anthropology, environmental interactions of Native communities, cultural change and continuity, colonialism, and power will be explored.