SMC Core Curriculum Course Proposal Form
Fall 2014
Electronically submit this course form and attachments to the Chair of the CCC by
October 1. Please submit a separate proposal for each desired learning goal.
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Name of Proposer: Lynn A. Meisch and Jennifer Heung
Email address: lynnmeis@stmarys-ca.edu, jheung@stmarys-ca.edu
Department/Program of Proposer: Anthropology
Name of Department/Program housing the course: Anthropology
Name(s) of Program Director/Department Chair housing the course:
Jennifer Heung
Course Acronym, Number and Title: Anth 001: Introduction to Social and
Cultural Anthropology
Proposal is for All Sections of the course: __YES___
Proposal is for instructor’s section(s) (Engaging the World only): _____
Course Prerequisites (if any): None
Unit Value of Course: 1 credit
10. Mark with an X the Learning Goal for which the course is being proposed.
(Please submit a separate proposal for each desired goal.)
Engaging the World (as appropriate, generally zero to two)
American Diversity: ____
Common Good: _XX___
Community Engagement: ____
Global Perspectives: ____
11. Expected Attachments:
a) Syllabus: Current course syllabus, expected to contain a course description
and learning outcomes. The course’s learning outcomes must include
coverage of the Learning Outcomes associated with the Core Curriculum
Learning Goal for which the course is being proposed.
b) Teaching and Learning: A narrative that explains how the course will guide
students toward achieving each Learning Outcome and how coursework
(e.g., papers, exams, videotaped presentations) will be used to measure
student achievement of each Learning Outcome. Please address the outcomes
directly and one by one.
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Anth 001 – Introduction to Social and Cultural Anthropology
Meisch and Heung, Fall 2014
Application for Common Good
Teaching Narrative:
Our Introductory course fulfills all three learning outcomes for the Common Good,
but we emphasize two in our Intro courses:
1. Reflect and write substantively on ways in which human beings find
fulfillment in community.
3. Demonstrate a capacity for coherent, principled analysis of concrete social
problems.
Anthropology is the holistic and comparative study of human diversity and is
related to both science and the humanities. It consists of four subfields: Cultural and
Social Anthropology (the subject of this application), Physical Anthropology (the
study of human evolution and primatology), Linguistic Anthropology (the study of
the origin and use of human languages) and Archaeology (the study of humans in
relation to the past).
Cultural and Social Anthropology is based on several basic concepts that speak to
the LOs related to the Common Good. The first is the fundamental psychic unity of
all humans, meaning that despite substantial differences in social organization, all
cultures are a window on what it means to be human. In this sense, anthropology
examines the way in which all humans find fulfillment and belonging within their
own cultures. The second concept is ethnocentricity, the propensity to judge other
cultures, usually negatively, based on your own, and to see your own culture as
right, natural, and normal. Ethnocentricity is learned and can be unlearned. The
ability to realize your own ethnocentricity is one of the goals of our course, and
increasingly important in multicultural societies such as the United States. Indeed, a
basic premise of Anthropology is that all human cultures have value and are worthy
of respect. Both of these principles readily speak to LO#1 in understanding how
individuals can find satisfaction and self-realization in different types of
communities. During the course students are introduced to numerous crosscultural perspectives on community and the different ways belonging can be
defined.
The third concept central to Anthropology is cultural relativism, which does not
mean that anything goes, that, for example, the Holocaust or the recent ISIS
beheadings are, "just people doing their thing," but that we should try to see other
cultures as a whole and attempt to understand them from the point of view of the
members of those cultures. We ask our students to understand the cultural logic
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within a given culture that would explain behaviors and actions that one might
otherwise find objectionable. The term emic refers to the insiders' view, while etic
refers to the outsiders' view. These concepts do not excuse or justify racism or drug
abuse or other social dysfunctions but give anthropologists and our students a
framework to analyze numerous cultural concepts such as community, social order,
and social justice. In this manner, students are then asked to identify and analyze
social problems within a cross-cultural context (LO#3). Furthermore we ask our
students to examine and seek appropriate solutions to social problems based on a
thorough understanding of the specific culture under study.
Every member of the SMC Anthropology Department teaches the introductory
course on a rotating basis, and we also use lecturers when needed. Anthropologists
generally have both area and topical specialties. (The topical specialties are not
necessarily linked to the professor's area specialty.) For example Prof. Heung's area
specialty is contemporary Chinese culture and society, and her topical specialties
include globalization, identity construction, gender and migration, and urban
anthropology. Prof. Meisch's area specialty is South America, and her topical
specialties include material culture (especially dress and ethnic identity),
indigenous rights, traditional healing, globalization, and museum studies.
We achieve pedagogical cohesion in the introductory courses, while allowing
professors to use their unique specialties, by having core reading and assignments
for all sections of Anth 001 classes. These core components are:
1. A basic introductory textbook, Culture Counts: A Concise Introduction to Culture
Anthropology by Serena Nanda and Richard L. Warms. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth
Cengage Learning, Second Edition, 2012.
The Nanda and Warms textbook covers the core Anthropological concepts
with chapters on such topics as Marriage, Family and Kinship, Religion, Inequalities:
Race and Ethnicity, Inequalities: Class and Caste, and Political Organization, to list a
few.
2. An ethnography, meaning a book-length, detailed study by an anthropologist of a
particular culture, subculture or social issue. For our intro course we use In Search
of Respect: Selling Crack in El Barrio, by Philippe Bourgois. Cambridge, England:
Cambridge University Press. Second Edition, 2003.
The Bourgeois ethnography analyzes how social and economic
circumstances (e.g. loss of manufacturing jobs in New York, poor education, broken
families, and lack of affordable housing) marginalized Spanish-speaking Puerto
Rican immigrants in East Harlem. The author lived in the barrio and researched how
such conditions contributed to the crack cocaine epidemic in New York City in the
1980s and '90s by living in the barrio and conducting extensive research with crack
dealer.
3. A written review of an article of the students' choice from an Anthropological
journal and an outside event assignment. Both these common assignments ask
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students to apply anthropological concepts such as cultural relativism and
ethnocentric to events and issues outside of the classroom.
Learning:
LO#1: We measure the students’ mastery of this LO in quizzes, tests, or short
critical reflection papers administered at numerous points throughout the semester.
This form of assessment requires students to articulate in written form how
individuals in different cultures define and recognize community and the culturally
appropriate ways in which one finds fulfillment in these groups. The concept of
“fulfillment” is also investigated to examine the different ways individuals can gain a
sense of belonging through various categories such as racial identity, social class,
cultural continuity etc. In addition there are numerous in-class activities that help
students reflect on these different cultural definitions of community and how
individuals enact the cultural logics of belonging in diverse manners. For example,
after different units of the class (e.g. political organization, marriage, family and
kinship, or religion) students will be assigned critical reflection papers that ask them
to use the readings to reflect on the ways humans find fulfillment in community
through different cultural means. Additionally another professor uses classroom
debate in which students are divided into smaller paired groups, which must
assume the personas of people in the book (In Search of Respect: Selling Crack in El
Barrio). Students must speak in the first person and justify their actions (as
described in the book). One group represents the people of El Barrio, the other the
police, drug enforcement personnel, school teachers and so on. The class members
not debating vote on who won the debate, based not on political correctness but on
which side made the best arguments.
In all the sections, students write and reflect on this LO continuously in different
formats. For example, on quizzes they are asked to give short answers and on exams
students may write longer reflective essays. During in class activities students may be
asked to free write reflective essays and student also can have short assignments as
described above. This learning outcome of how humans find fulfillment in community
is central to anthropology and students write and reflect consistently on these ideas.
By the end of the semester, students will have numerous opportunities to produce
written work regarding this LO. For Core assessment purposes, there will be several
different written assignments from which to draw upon for data regarding the
Common Good. Instructors who elect to use the debate format described would be
happy to have the debates filmed for assessment purposes.
LO#3: Throughout the course students explore many forms of inequality and social
justice in a cross-cultural context. Not only do we have students demonstrate their
understanding of social problems through various categories of difference (e.g. race,
class, gender, sexuality, religion, and nationality), they are also asked to compare
and contrast a US understanding of these problems with other cultures presented in
the course. For example, how do issues of social inequality manifest differently in
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nomadic vs industrialized societies? Or how does a county with a socialist
government deal with an informal drug economy? In each cultural context, students
must understand and be able to articulate how a particular social problem is defined
and then analyze the social problem from an emic and etic perspective. These forms
of comparisons and articulations of social problems in a cross-cultural context may be
assessed by different formats that may include multiple quizzes with written
responses, essay questions on exams, and reflection papers in the classroom or given as
assignments. Again, for Core assessment purposes, there will always be at least one
written assignment, and usually more, that will be sufficient for data collection
purposes.
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