Cultural Anthropology Curriculum Goals: Core Skills and Knowledge of
Cultural Anthropology Majors
An undergraduate student who has a cultural anthropology major from Hanover College will complete his or her
program possessing fundamental skills that are important for life as a citizen and professional in the workplace, and a
holistic base of knowledge for understanding the human experience in terms of culture, society, meaning, sociocultural
processes, and social organization across times and places.
In addition to specific areas of competence that are unique to each student (depending on the selected courses), the
Sociology and Anthropology Department is committed to developing the following competencies in every student
majoring in Anthropology.
Students who have majored in Cultural Anthropology
1. evaluate the human species and the human experience from biological and cross-cultural, cross-temporal
perspectives. This competency includes ability to
a) critically assess each of anthropology's four fields (biological/physical, archaeology, linguistic anthropology,
and sociocultural anthropology) and defend or dispute their integration into one discipline.
b) appraise scientific accounts of human origins and evolution.assumptions underlying natural science and
humanistic orientations in anthropology.
d) critique the concept of culture, its use in, and relevance for, anthropology.
2. have essential comprehension and interpersonal communication skills, which include ability to
a) argue topics, issues, processes, policies, practices and/or organizations from anthropological perspectives in
ethnographic areas at home and abroad.
b) design anthropological solutions to practical, everyday of human behavior.
c) construct an original thesis statement, defend that thesis with logical rationale and appropriate ethnographic
evidence, and argue the thesis convincingly, orally and in writing.
d) appraise his/her own culture and life using anthropological concepts, perspectives, and methods.
3. possess social research and data-analysis skills. These competencies include being able to
a) evaluate the distinctive features of empirical research of human behavior, including limitations of the empirical
way of knowing about the world.
b) critically assess anthropological approaches to fieldwork, particularly in terms of how one reaches validity.
c) argue sociocultural problems, issues, or topics using different anthropological theories.
d) design original ethnographic research, including defining a problem or issue; reviewing literature, creating a
research design, collecting data using a variety of methods, analyzing data, and presenting findings in oral and
written form.
e) manage computers and other technologies as research tools to access and analyze scholarly material.
f) evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of methodology and data analysis in anthropological studies.
g) construct one's own position on epistemology and methodology in anthropological research.
h) develop solutions to organizational dilemmas and problems in society using anthropological concepts,
perspectives, and methods.
4. Move easily from comprehension to analysis, synthesis, and evaluation in oral and written argument about
human sociocultural systems, particularly those of indigenous and non-western peoples. These competencies
include ability to
a) appraise the sometimes conflictual roles of culture, history, other people, social structures, and human
motivation in shaping perceptions, attitudes, values, beliefs, behaviors, and/or material life of individuals and
groups.
b) critically assess the causes and consequences of social inequalities rooted in age, gender, race, ethnicity, age,
class, and sexual orientation, including patterns found within and across ethnographic areas.
c) evaluate how organizations and institutions work, including interdependence of social systems and conflicts of
interest within and between social units.
d) argue about societies, cultures, and individuals from alternative perspectives including insider (emic) and
outsider (etic) points of view (e.g., stepping imaginatively outside one’s own sociocultural context in order to
critique it or stepping outside of one’s own experience to see a new point of view).
e) evaluate the cross-cultural similarities and differences of topics as evidenced in different ethnographies,
challenge opposing viewpoints, and propose alternative hypotheses on various issues.
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f) argue anthropological topics in-depth (e.g., gender, social and political organization, economic systems, kinship,
descent, and marriage, religion, magic and witchcraft, race and ethnicity, foodways, transnationalism, and
globalization) in specific ethnographic contexts or culture areas using anthropological theory, history, and
persuasive and appropriate ethnographic evidence.
g) evaluate two countries within a single culture area in depth (e.g., "Egypt and Morocco from the culture area
of North Africa," or "Kenya and Tanzania" from the culture area of East Africa) in terms of an anthropological
topic.
h) critically assess how culture changes.
i) critically assess the multiplicity of ways in which humans organize, make sense of experience, give meaning to
their lives, and express themselves across time and place.
5. critically assess the interdependencies of global sociocultural systems and the interconnections between local
and global levels of society and culture, including the ability to
a) evaluate the processes and effects of modernization and incorporation on indigenous and non-Western societies
in historic context.
b) argue indigenous and non-Western people's perspectives on contemporary and global issues.
c) appraise how two different ethnographic or culture areas are affected by globalization processes in terms of the
same anthropological topic (e.g., gender relations, social organizations, economic activities, ethnicities,
tourisms, arts and architectures, foodways, religious beliefs and practices, etc.).
e) argue and defend one's own position on globalization.
f) compare, contrast, and evaluate anthropological insights into human behavior with those of cognate disciplines.
6. evaluate the centrality of ethics to anthropological work. This competency includes ability to
a)
b)
c)
d)
critique the American Anthropological Association's Statement of Professional Ethics.
argue the advantages and limitations of anthropological analysis.
critically assess the complex relationship and interdependencies among science, ethics, and power.
argue systematically and meaningfully on ethical dilemmas and issues that face citizens of indigenous and nonWestern societies.
e) critically evaluate one's own ethics in light of cross-cultural knowledge.
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