syllabus anthro

Anthropology

Cultural Anthropology

Instructor: Joseph P. Ferry, M.A.

Syllabus

Course Description:

In this course in cultural anthropology we will approach the study man- and womankind from an examination of the other, the stranger, foreigner, alien,the distant, and those of long ago in the traces they left behind.

We will structure our readings and our study within the discipline of Anthropology. Anthropology is a field which has drawn on the scientific method, evolutionary biology, as well as participant observation, field research, reflection and literary criticism, and social action to deepen its explanations of humankind; our relations, activity, customs and legacy.

We will examine the ideas of men and women who, having studied the bones and fossils of creatures that lived over a million years ago, make the claim,”These are our ancestors.” We will look into the considerations of scholars who see language and communication as the distinct trait of people that both molds our unity and also preserves our estrangements.

We will examine the material legacy of peoples without histories, and wonder along with archeologists, ‘who were they, how did they live, love and die?’

Our readings will start with the first writers who looked outward at different peoples and sought to situate the differences they saw within the circle of humankind.

Course Objectives

Acquire a capacity to recognize in the patterns, customs and life ways of social groups the presence of coherence, social integrity and integration and the promise of growth. To begin to see in The Other, the distant and the past, a mirror for our own customs patterns and life ways.

To acquire the beginnings of skillfulness at translating conflicting interests and values into confusions about expressions and meanings. Then to begin to acquire a capacity for empathetic understanding of other ways, traditions, customs in making companions and compatriots.

Appreciate the distinction between personal situation, psychology and troubles, and social issues, social facts, cultural dynamics and forces.

Develop a capacity to recognize some of the cultural conditions that constitute templates and frameworks that shape our understandings, common beliefs, and practices.

Read, study, research and discuss:

Individuals in a multicultural community
Global markets, intimate encounters,
Appreciation of cultural variation, respect for one’s personal heritage
Culture, community, communications
Family, schools, kinship, friends and work: recreating society every day.
Cultural institutions, formations, customs and dynamics.
Genders, races, classes, clubs, tribes, clans and networks: groups, grouping and excluding.
The Commons - the environment, heritage, legacy, history and creation- the setting of human social life and meanings.
Theories of cultural change and transformation.
Signs and Symbols - linguistics, proxemics and kinesics. Provide a foundation for an understanding of the elaborate ways that people communicate through language and culturally mediated and constructed use of space, body motions, role performance and identity management.

Learning Outcomes

Cultural Anthropology - Students survey human cultural adaptations, past and present, western and non-western. Course presents a balanced viewpoint on generalizations about cultrual types and on specifics of individual cultural systems.

As a result of this course, students will demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of American pluralism and/or world cultures.
As a result of this course, students will demonstrate an understanding of the commonalities and differences between and among diverse cultures.
As a result of this course, students will demonstrate an understanding of their culture and world cultures through comparative analyses of cultural practices.
As a result of this course, students will demonstrate an understanding of the complexities of living and working in a world of diverse cultural communities.

Required Texts:

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, by Kottak, McGraw Hill

Other necessary readings will be distributed over internet or be available in library.

Student requirements

1. Readings
Each week there will be readings in the text, and in assigned articles, that will cover subject areas that will be the focus areas of class discussion. Students will need to prepare for class discussions by having read these pages and papers prior to class.

2. Lab and field work.
During the term students will spend 4 to 8 hours in independent field research.
Student will make one trip to U of Penn Museum, and report on findings.

3. Anthropological research project and papers:
Each student will do a field assignment, research following the fieldwork, and submit an ethnographic paper reporting on that research.

4. Class participation - having done readings, all students will need to participate actively in class discussions. Missing more than 3 classes will be recognized as withdrawal from the course.

5. Comprehensive exams at mid term and at end term Exams will be graded according to knowledge of the ideas and thoughts in our assigned readings and class discussions, logical thinking, clear writing expression, persuasiveness of argument, and evidence of the investment of effort.

Contact Information

Teacher is available for consultation on course material and coursework:

Before and after classes, no appointment necessary

By appointment (contact at ferry@tenebrae.org)

By email for course content questions

Through www.tenebrae.org/coursework for information about course, assignments, readings, calendar, notes, instructions, references.