ANT 105 - Cultural Anthropology

1. Recognize and comprehend the principal objectives and methods of socio-cultural anthropology.
2. Analyze the ways that social, political, and economic issues intersect from a cultural perspective.
3. Critically evaluate the ways your own ideas about gender, sexuality, race, and relatedness are socially constructed and culturally inflected.
4. Synthesize the bases and development of human and societal endeavors across time and place.

Course Objectives:

Chapter 1:

1. Describe the goals of anthropology.
2. Discuss the scope and subfields of anthropology.
3. Delineate how anthropology is unique.
4. Explain anthropology as a scientific field.

Chapter 2:

1. Explain how anthropologists define culture.
2. Delineate important aspects of culture.
3. Discuss subcultures, ethnic groups, and race.
4. Describe culture in the subfields of anthropology.
5. Critique the concept of culture.

Chapter 3:

1. Explain the background preparations for doing ethnographic fieldwork.
2. Describe the ethical standards that govern the field worker.
3. Explore the methods employed by fieldworkers and the problems associated with each method.
4. Assess some of the challenges associated with fieldwork.

Chapter 4:

1. Describe how anthropologists study language.
2. Discuss the relationship between language and culture.
3. Distinguish between human and nonhuman systems of communication.
4. Evaluate how nonverbal communication supplements verbal communication.

Chapter 5:

1. Describe models of cultural evolution and cultural ecology.
2. Identify subsistence strategies within the framework of the evolutionary-ecological model.
3. Examine economic systems within the evolutionary-ecological model.
4. Evaluate the adaptive strategy technology.
5. Discuss the strategies common to foraging.

Chapter 6:

1. Describe subsistence strategies and economics within an evolutionary-ecological model.
2. Examine sociocultural changes brought by food-producing subsistence strategies.
3. Identify strategies common to horticultural and pastoralism.
4. Assess the strategies common to agriculture and industrialism.
5. Evaluate issues associated with the globalization of agriculture.

Chapter 7:

1. Describe marriage rules found across cultures.
2. Evaluate marriage forms and their functions.
3. Examine mate choice and marriage finance.
4. Discuss types of families and their functions.
5. Identify residence patterns and their functions.

Chapter 8:

1. Assess the functions of kinship systems.
2. Describe and discuss the types of descent systems found around the world.
3. Explain the functions of associations based on descent.
4. Evaluate the cross-cultural patterns of kinship terminology.

Chapter 9:

1. Distinguish between sex and gender cross-culturally.
2. Delineate factors affecting gender roles cross-culturally.
3. Summarize the variations of gender roles.
4. Explore human sexual behavior from a comparative perspective.

Chapter 10:

1. Discuss concepts used in the cross-cultural study of political systems.
2. Describe the cross-cultural forms of political organization.
3. Assess social stratification in societies.
4. Examine societal approaches to social control.

Chapter 11:

1. Define the supernatural world as it is viewed cross-culturally.
2. Discuss why people develop belief systems.
3. Describe the functions of supernatural belief systems and practices.
4. Explore the common types of beliefs found in cultures, including supernatural beings and forces.         
5. Evaluate supernatural practices and types of practitioners.

Chapter 12:

1. Delineate the parameters of human expression.
2. Describe the earliest known human expressive images.
3. Compare a sample of aboriginal and contemporary expressive forms.
4. Explore the functions of human expressions.

Chapter 13:

1. Describe how culture changes and methods for studying change.
2. Assess lessons learned from directed-change programs.
3. Discuss issues of globalization.
4. Examine issues of culture change in urban settings.

Chapter 14:

1. Describe the field of applied anthropology and methods.
2. Evaluate how the anthropological approach is used in business and in medicine.
3. Explain how anthropological knowledge is used in agriculture and in development programs.