Course Design by Jason Antrosio

Course Design by Jason Antrosio

Introduction to Anthropology, p. 1 of 5

Introduction to Anthropology

Course Design by Jason Antrosio

For anthropology updates, see Anthropology Report and Living Anthropologically

Purpose

This course introduces anthropology as a four-field discipline, encompassing biological anthropology, archaeology, socio-cultural anthropology, and linguistic anthropology.Although popular notions of anthropology dwell on its archaeological and biological aspects (“stones and bones”), anthropology takes the whole of humanity as its subject matter.Aspiring to a holistic understanding, anthropology is at the intersection of the humanities and the sciences, the most scientific of the humanities or the most humanistic of the sciences.

This course attempts to deliver the best approximations of current knowledge about human life, in terms of evolution, history, and present.To do this, it is necessary to understand the shortcomings of previous beliefs, as well as achieve a basic understanding of anthropological methods and scope.

Learning Outcomes

To acquire a basic familiarity and knowledge of the four subfields of anthropology and how anthropologists think about the following major topics:

  • Human evolution
  • Race
  • Sex and gender
  • Plant and animal domestication
  • Culture
  • Language
  • Human possibility

Required Texts

-Robert Lavenda and Emily Schultz, Anthropology: What Does It Mean to Be Human?,2nd Edition. 2012.

-Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz, Labor and Legality: An Ethnography of a Mexican Immigrant Network. 2010.

-An eBook reader available for $22.78 atMcGraw-Hill eBookstore. Please search under “Antrosio” or ISBN 9781121563735 to find the reader.

Part 1: Human Nature, Race, Evolution

  1. Tue 9/4:
  1. Horace Miner, “Body Ritual Among the Nacirema” (in the Culture and Fieldwork section of the reader, 3-6).
  1. Thu 9/6:
  1. L&S, Chapter 1, “What is Anthropology?” (3-18).
  2. Bruce Bower, “Slumber’s Unexplored Landscape” (in the Culture and Fieldwork section of the reader, 7-10).
  1. Tue 9/11:
  1. L&S Module 1, “Anthropology, Science, and Storytelling” (19-27).
  2. L&S Chapter 2, “Why is Evolution Important to Anthropologists?” (29-55).
  3. Sarah BlafferHrdy, “Mothers and Others” (20-26).
  1. Thu 9/13:
  1. L&S, Chapter 3 (Part 1 of 2), “What Can Evolutionary Theory Tell Us about Human Variation?” (57-73).
  2. Clarence C. Gravlee, “How Race Becomes Biology: Embodiment of Social Inequality” (27-41).
  1. Tue 9/18:
  1. L&S, Chapter 3 (Part 2 of 2), “What Can Evolutionary Theory Tell Us?” (73-80).
  2. Barbara J. King, “Apes, Hominids, and the Roots of Religion” (42-45).
  1. Thu 9/20:
  1. L&S Chapter 4, “What Can the Study of Primates Tell Us about Human Beings?” (91-109)
  2. Barbara Smuts, “What Are Friends For?” (46-51).
  1. Tue 9/25:
  1. L&S, Module 2, “Dating Methods in Paleoanthropology and Archaeology” (81-91).
  2. Barry Bogin, “The Tall and the Short of It” (52-55).

Part 2: Human Becoming

  1. Thu 9/27:
  1. L&S Chapter 5 (Part 1 of 2), “What Can the Fossil Record Tell Us?” (111-131).
  2. Ann Gibbons, “A New Kind of Ancestor: Ardipithecus Unveiled” (59-63).
  1. Tue 10/2:
  1. L&S Chapter 5 (Part 2 of 2), “What Can the Fossil Record Tell Us?” (131-151).
  2. Kathryn Weedman Arthur, “Feminine Knowledge and Skill Reconsidered” (65-79)
  3. Heather Pringle, “New Women of the Ice Age” (80-85).
  1. Thu 10/4:
  1. L&S Chapter 6, “How Do We Know about the Human Past?” (153-177).
  2. Andrew Crosby, “Archaeology and Vanua Development in Fiji” (86-97).
  1. Tue 10/9:
  1. L&S, Chapter 7 (Part 1 of 2), “Why Did Humans Settle Down, Build Cities?” (179-197).
  2. Jared Diamond, “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race” (online).
  3. Alan H. Goodman and George J. Armelagos, “Disease and Death at Dr. Dickson’s Mounds” (98-102).
  1. Thu 10/11:
  1. L&S, Chapter 7 (Part 2 of 2), “Why Did Humans Establish States?” (197-211).
  2. Karen Wright, “Uncovering America’s Pyramid Builders” (103-106).
  1. Tue 10/16:
  1. L&S, Chapter 8 (Part 1 of 2), “How Does the Concept of Culture Help Us?” (213-222).
  2. Meredith F. Small, “Our Babies, Ourselves” (107-113).
  1. Thu 10/18:
  1. L&S, Chapter 8 (Part 2 of 2), “How Does the Concept of Culture Help Us?” (222-230).
  2. Corinne A. Kratz, “Circumcision, Pluralism, and Dilemmas of Cultural Relativism” (114-125).

Part 3: Human Learning

  1. Thu 10/25:
  1. L&S, Module 3, “On Ethnographic Methods” (231-243).
  2. Claire E. Sterk, “Tricking and Tripping” (in the Culture and Fieldwork section of the reader, 11-18).
  1. Tue 10/30:
  1. L&S, Chapter 9, “Why Is Understanding Human Language Important?” (244-277).
  2. Laura Bohannan, “Shakespeare in the Bush” (128-133).
  3. LeraBoroditsky, “Lost in Translation” (135-137).
  1. Thu 11/1:
  1. L&S Chapter 10, “How Do We Make Meaning?” (282-313).
  2. Keith H. Basso, “To Give up on Words” (139-148).
  3. Stephanie IngeRudwick, “Shifting Norms of Linguistic and Cultural Respect” (149-158).
  1. Tue 11/6:
  1. L&S Chapter 11,“Why Do Anthropologists Study Economic Relations?” (314-337).
  2. Richard Borshay Lee, “Eating Christmas in the Kalahari” (160-164).
  1. Thu 11/8:
  1. L&S Chapter 12,“How Do Anthropologists Study Political Relations?” (338-361).
  2. James L. Gibbs, Jr., “The Kpelle Moot” (165-172).
  1. Tue 11/13:
  1. L&S Chapter 13 (Part 1 of 2), “Where Do Our Relatives Come From?” (362-378).
  2. Will Roscoe, “‘Strange Country This’: An Introduction to North American Gender Diversity” (173-180).
  3. Deborah Tannen, “Talk in the Intimate Relationship: His and Hers” (182-188).
  1. Thu 11/15:
  1. L&S Chapter 13 (Part 2 of 2), “Why Do Our Relatives Matter?” (379-403).
  2. Melvyn C. Goldstein, “When Brothers Share a Wife” (190-194).
  3. Mark Auslander, “How Families Work: Love, Labor and Mediated Oppositions in American Domestic Ritual” (195-212).

Part 4: Anthropology Today

  1. Tue 11/27:
  2. Gomberg-Muñoz, Labor and Legality, 1-40.
  3. L&S Chapter 14 (Part 1 of 2), “What Can Anthropology Tell Us about Social Inequality?” (404-417).
  4. Paul Farmer, “Culture, Poverty, and HIV Transmission” (215-227).
  1. Thu 11/29:
  2. Gomberg-Muñoz, Labor and Legality, 41-79.
  3. L&S Chapter 14 (Part 2 of 2), “What Can Anthropology Tell Us about Social Inequality?” (417-435).
  4. Charles E. Orser Jr., “The Challenge of Race to American Historical Archaeology” (229-237).
  1. Tue 12/4:
  2. Gomberg-Muñoz, Labor and Legality, 80-123.
  3. L&S, Chapter 15 (Part 1 of 2), “What Can Anthropology Tell Us about Globalization?” (436-456).
  4. Lila Abu-Lughod, “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?” (238-244).
  1. Thu 12/6:
  2. Gomberg-Muñoz, Labor and Legality, 124-140.
  3. L&S, Chapter 15 (Part 2 of 2), “What Can Anthropology Tell Us about Globalization?” (456-467).
  4. Jason Antrosio and Rudi Colloredo-Mansfeld, “Ecuadorian Apparel, Apparently Global” (pdf).
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