Hawaii Pacific University
ANTH 3600 Poverty and Culture Section ____
Semester and year, meeting times
Course description: This course will explore both the systemic conditions and individual’s experiences
of poverty primarily focusing on the U.S. with particular attention to Hawaiian context. We will closely
examine how attitudes and perspectives about poor people are embedded into social, economic, and
political frameworks within the culture individuals find themselves. Students will also interact directly
with poverty in a service capacity at Next Step Homeless Shelter. We will critique and debate rival
theories about the causes and consequences of poverty: why poverty occurs, why certain people are
poor, how poverty influences family and community life, and how the poor respond to their situation.
Course prerequisite: Lower division humanities or social science class / see instructor for exceptions.
Instructor: Name, contact information and other relevant information about the instructor.
General Education Requirement: This course is classified as a Global Citizenship course which meets
the Upper-Division Citizenship requirement for general education. While it is formally classified as a
Global Citizenship course, it also provides opportunities for service learning to students who pursue
collaborative research projects with community groups and/or volunteer their time with these groups.
Be aware that some majors specify a particular service-learning course or a different Global Citizenship
course to meet the citizenship requirement. Check your degree requirements if you are planning to use
this course to meet the citizenship requirement.
The course addresses global citizenship through the idea of interconnectedness. Students are
encouraged to see social problems not as isolated issues but as parts of larger, more complex social
situations where global processes and local interpretations of universal struggles over power, identity
and status used to justify access to resources. In some cases, specific organizations (such as The Friends
Service Committee will be able to tie their efforts to issues (such as militarization) that clearly operate
on a global scale. In other cases, groups such as fair housing advocates have to take into account
changes in local economies brought on by changes in the global economy. Students will be encouraged
to examine the connections between these global processes and the impacts of these processes on local
communities.
General Education Student Learning Outcomes and the Five Themes: HPU’s general education
curriculum is focused around five themes. This course emphasizes the World Cultures and Values &
Choices themes while satisfying the upper division Citizenship requirement as a service learning course.
Poverty and Culture provides students with opportunities to achieve the following related general
education student learning outcomes.

Students will work and learn as active members of a global society working as volunteers at Next
Step Homeless Shelter for 20 hours plus. They will design and implement a particular service for
the staff and/or members of the shelter in addition to their supportive role as a volunteer.

Students will analyze the interrelationships among beliefs, choices and cultural, and social
institutions and practices (VC 2) through direct interaction with “houseless” community and
those that serve this population in Honolulu. Students will also read, present and discuss Zinn’s
(2003) People’s History of the United States to deepen analyses of common historical
assumptions about American cultural and institutional practices.

Students will recognize and value multiple perspectives and develop skills for mediating among
conflicting claims (VC 5) Through reading, presenting and discussing Manicas (2004) Reader
Social Process in Hawaii students will be provided diverse perspectives of controversial issues
within Hawaiian context.

Students will understand a range of meanings for concepts associated with individual and social
ethics such as rights and responsibilities, justice and impartiality. Citizenship and social
responsibility (VC 8) will be addressed in looking at Barker’s (2004) ethnographic account of the
Marshallese in addition to working directly with Micronesian community at Next Step Shelter as
well as assisting in implementing the Walk the Talk event.

Students will investigate the role that race, ethnicity, class, power, belief systems and gender
play in past and present cultural systems (WC 3) though threading and/or braiding course
readings, field work and discussions into a written essays and an ethnographic project.

Students will develop the skills that will enable them to assess and engage with cultural
difference in a compassionate and systematic fashion (WC 6) through field experience, group
interaction and structured reflection.

Students will develop the ability to use other people’s experiences as a way to reflect critically
on their own ways of understanding the world (WC 7) highlighted though analyzing, discussing,
and presenting Ehrenreich’s (2001) Nickel and Dimed as accessible ethnographic work of
American poverty.
Note: Purple text shows places where specific course information must be filled in. Red text provides
explanatory notes to the instructor which should be deleted before using the syllabus. Blue explanations
above should be rephrased by the individual instructor to reflect the specific approach in that section to
these required outcomes. Course specific outcomes below are an example and should also be rephrased
or modified by the instructor to fit the particular emphasis of his or her course.
Student Learning Outcomes for ANTH 3600
The following are learning outcomes specific to the course. Some address the Gen Ed outcomes above
Students will:
1.
Gain a sense of relationship with people possessing different experiences from yourself (WC 5, WC 6).
2.
Grasp the importance of cultural and historical context for understanding people and their behaviors (WC
3, WC 4).
3. Students will comprehend the complex nature of poverty as a social, cultural, political and economic
phenomenon.
4. Students will gain familiarity with the ways in which people experience and deal with poverty.
5. Gain an appreciation of the way in which cultural frames of understanding (including your own) affect the
way you and other people think and behave (WC 7).
6. Students will become familiar with a range of theories concerning the nature, cause and ways to address
poverty.
7. Engage with the idea that a good global citizen has fundamental responsibilities to the locality in which
s/he actually lives.
8. Students will learn about the connections between economic, political and social forces in the creation
and maintenance of conditions of poverty.
9. Understand ethnographic methodology as a process to critique information and opinion; demonstrate
competence in writing, computer use, verbal discourse, group dynamics and relationship building.
10. Students will engage with the notion of the humanity of people in poverty and how this humanity is
valued and re-valued by themselves and others.
For the rest of these required syllabus items see the details in the faculty handbook. Delete this note
once the syllabus is complete. For online courses there are some additional requirements given at this
link.
Texts List textbooks with ISBN’s and include this language as well
All textbook information (pricing, ISBN #, and e-books) for this course can be found on the HPU
Bookstore website: hpu.edu/bookstore.
If you have any questions regarding textbooks, please contact the HPU Bookstore at:
Phone:
808-544-9347
Or e-mail:
jyokota@hpu.edu
mmiyahira@hpu.edu
Assignments and mode of evaluation
Summary of important dates and deadlines (if the schedule is a separate document and due dates are
not given with the description of the assignments).
Class rules and policies (including regarding attendance, late work and academic dishonesty)
Schedule of events (may be attached separately)