AN 2210.01
CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
SPRING 2012
Memorial 103, MWF 11:15-12:05
DR. KATHERINE C. DONAHUE
OFFICE: Rounds 317; TEL: 535-2424 Email: kdonahue@plymouth.edu
OFFICE HOURS: MWF: 10:00-11:00, TUESDAY: 2-3 OR BY APPOINTMENT
An introduction to the study of people and culture. A brief survey of the four major divisions of
anthropology (archaeology, sociocultural, physical, linguistics) is followed by a comprehensive
discussion of the concept of culture and its technological, social, and ideological components.
Meets the Global General Education requirement.
General Education, Global Awareness Connections: Educated people are aware that human
beings are interdependent members of a world community, that there are both similarities and
differences in the societies and cultures of the world, and that the manners in which people live
their lives need not be exactly alike. Students take a three-credit Global Awareness (GACO)
course (either within the major or not) designed to expose them to the important societal issues
facing the world and to encourage them to develop the ability to appreciate and think about
issues from different points of view. Global Awareness courses such as this one focus on the
forces that have shaped peoples, cultures, nations, and regions of the world. They increase
students’ understanding of each person’s position, participation, obligations, and responsibilities
within the world community.
Course Objectives: Students in this course will:
1. demonstrate through written (papers and essays) and other assignments (observations
captured through a variety of formats) an awareness of the wide range of global diversity
of cultures and peoples.
2. apply critical thinking skills learned in the First-Year Seminar, to analyze, synthesize, to
compare and contrast when using ethnographic materials to learn about different cultures.
3. learn and demonstrate through writing and presentations that cultures quite different from
your own provide deeply satisfying ways of life for the people who share those cultures,
and that values and norms, although widely similar in many parts of the world, can also
be very different and yet morally and philosophically correct and normal for those
people. This course may, therefore, challenge some of the assumptions you have about
the way lives should be lived.
Please Note:
Plymouth State University is committed to providing students with
documented disabilities equal access to all university programs and
facilities. If you think you have a disability requiring accommodations,
you should immediately contact the PASS Office in Lamson Library (5352270) to determine whether you are eligible for such accommodations.
Academic accommodations will only be considered for students who have
registered with the PASS Office. If you have a Letter of Accommodation for
this course from the PASS Office, please provide the instructor with that
information privately so that you and the instructor can review those
accommodations.
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Haviland, William, et al., 13th ed. Other editions ok. Cultural Anthropology. NY: Thomson,
Wadsworth (Cengage). ISBN: 978-0495810827.
Ferraro, Gary. 2009. 3rd ed. Classic Readings in Cultural Anthropology. NY: Wadsworth.
ISBN: 978-0495507369.
Tucker, Catherine. 2010. Coffee Culture: Local Experiences, Global Connections. NY:
Routledge.
Supplementary film and Powerpoint will be used. Notes should be taken during all of this
material since they are illustrative of material discussed in the texts and in lectures, and these
notes will be useful in the essays you will be assigned. Class periods will consist of a
combination of lectures and class discussion. We expect that you will have read the assigned
chapters ahead of time.
COURSE OUTLINE
WEEK
1: 1/30-2/3
TOPIC
What is Anthropology?
Introduction to course; the fields of study;
What is culture?
READING
Haviland, Ch. 1
Horace Miner in Ferraro, Article
1
Field observation: what interests you
for a topic? (see separate handout)
2: 2/6-2/10
How do anthropologists do their work?
Haviland, Ch. 2, 3
Friday, 2/10: Hand in discussion of Tucker, Ch. 1-3
Roger Keesing in Ferraro, Article
your potential field observation topic
2
(where, what, specifically, will you
observe?)
3: 2/13-2/17
4: 2/20-2/24
Why study physical anthropology?
Human evolution? Primates?
No class 2/15: Winter Carnival
Haviland, Ch. 4
Language: Apes, Gender, Class and Cows
What do these have in common?
Haviland, Ch. 5
Deborah Tannen in Ferraro,
Article 3
EXAM I FRIDAY 2/24
5: 2/27-3/2
Psychological Anthropology: How Do Haviland, Ch. 6
Humans Get to be That Way?
Tucker: Ch. 4-6
Film: N!ai: The Story of a !Kung Bush
Woman
6: 3/5-3/9
Subsistence: Food:
Who Controls It?
7: 3/12-3/16
Economic Anthropology: How do things Haviland Ch. 8
get spread around?
Tucker, Ch. 11-14
Who Produces It, Haviland, Ch. 7
Jared Diamond in Ferraro, Article
5
Tucker, Ch. 7-10
Friday, 3/9: Written report of field
observation due
EXAM II, Wednesday, 3/14
8: 3/19-3/23
No Classes; Spring Break
9: 3/26-3/30
Sex and Marriage and Families: Why is Haviland, Ch. 9
there some connection?
Serena Nanda, in Ferraro, Article
7
Kinship and Class-based Societies: Do Haviland, Ch. 10
you have a second cousin? Does it Marjorie Shostak
matter?
Article 10
in
Ferraro,
Exercise: Who is in your household and
family?
10: 4/2-4/6
Age, Gender, Common Interest Groups, Haviland, Ch. 11
and Class: What’s in a Potato Chip?
Marjorie Shostak, in Ferraro,
Article 10
EXAM III, Friday, 4/6
Presentations of field observations
11: 4/9-4/13
Political Organization; Big Men and State
Formation: Is there a connection?
Presentations of field observations
Haviland, Ch. 12
James Gibbs, in Ferraro, Article
11
12: 4/16-4/20
Religion: Shamans and Healing: How do Haviland, Ch. 13
they do it?
George Gmelch, in Ferraro,
Article 14
Presentation of field observations
13: 4/23-4/27
Religion: Pantheons of Gods. What do Haviland, Ch. 13
they mean?
14: 4/30-5/4
Arts and Music: How do anthropologists Haviland, Ch. 14
study music?
Inge Bolin, in Ferraro, Article16
15: 5/7-5/11
Why does genocide happen? What can Haviland, Ch. 15-16
we say about the future? Review
Tucker, Ch. 15-18
FINAL EXAM: Wednesday, May 16, 11am-1:30pm, Memorial 103
POLICIES, etc.
There is an attendance policy. You are expected to be in class, on time.
We will take attendance according to the seating chart. If you are not in the seat you are signed
in to, you are considered absent. If you have more than three absences, we will reserve the right
to take up to ten points off your final grade.
If you miss an exam or quiz for some reason, you will be responsible for arranging to take it at
the time of the final exam.
Class participation is important, and makes the class go much faster for you. Come to class
prepared, and with questions.
PAPERS, EXAMS, QUIZZES, etc.
There will be four exams, weekly quizzes, writing assignments, and informal research
reports, both in-class and out of class.
You will be asked to do a field observation assignment (written version due Friday,
3/9; presentation sometime on weeks of 4/2-4/20) to learn techniques used by sociocultural
anthropologists when doing field work. The assignment will require time spent observing
interactions between people in a particular area, such as the HUB, or Monte Alto, or the post
office, library, grocery store, ski area, garage, elementary school playground, etc. You will need
to get permission in many instances, so we will discuss the ethics of observation. The paper will
be 2-3 pages long. We will spend some time in class discussing ways in which anthropologists
have conducted this type of assignment.
All written work is, of course, to be your own.
The quizzes will be graded by you (we will not keep those grades, but they can be used as a
gauge for you to know about what you are learning or perhaps, need to spend more time
reading). The exams will be a combination of multiple-choice and essay questions.
EXAM I
EXAM II
EXAM III
FINAL EXAM
FIELD OBSERVATION PAPER
PARTICIPATION (attendance, discussion, presentations,
including of field observation)
TOTAL
10%
20%
20%
20%
15%
15%
100%