LARAMIE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT#1
COURSE SYLLABUS
Course Title: IB – Anthropology 2 A/B (HL)
Course Number: 2904400/2904500
Prerequisites: IB – Anthropology 1 A/B (SL)
Course Description: Social and cultural anthropology is the comparative study of culture
and human societies. It explores the general principles of social and cultural life, and the
characteristics of specific societies and cultures. It operates with local and global
perspectives, and is increasingly concerned with urban as well as rural society, regional
inequalities and all aspects of modern nation states. Anthropology contributes to an
understanding of such contemporary issues as war and conflict, the environment, poverty,
problems of injustice, inequality and human rights.
This focus allows students an opportunity to become acquainted with these perspectives and
ways of thinking, and to connect the academic to the personal. Social and cultural
anthropology contributes a distinctive approach to internationalism. The course is designed to
introduce the principles, practices and materials of the discipline.
Standards & Benchmarks Addressed: The following Wyoming Social Studies Standards
(2008) are addressed during this course.
STANDARD 2: Culture/Cultural Diversity - Students demonstrate an understanding of
different cultures and how these cultures have contributed and continue to contribute to
the world in which they live.
STANDARD 3: Production, Distribution, and Consumption - Students demonstrate an
understanding of economic principles and concepts and describe the influence of
economic factors on societies
STANDARD 4: Time, Continuity and Change - Students demonstrate an understanding
of the people, events, problems, ideas, and cultures that were significant in the history of
our community, state, nation and the world.
STANDARD 5: People, Places, and Environments - Students demonstrate an
understanding of interrelationships among people, places, and environments.
September 2014
District Assessments:
Subject area content and skills are assessed by common unit district exams given to all IB
Anthropology 2 students. These assessments will be 30% of the student’s course grade.
Standards Proficiency:
Students must be proficient in at least 5 content areas to graduate from high school in LCSD,
one of which could be social studies. Proficiency on standards aligned to a course will be
earned if a student earns a combined average of 70% for the two semesters of the course and
passes both semesters.
Course Organization: This course is divided into two semesters that layer and cyclically
develop student expertise in holistic anthropology analysis of any and all materials
considered. The units of study are the IB themes: social organization, systems of belief and
knowledge, and change and transformations.
Adopted Instructional Materials:
 Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn, first published in 1991 (this edition
with a new forward, 2001), by Karen McCarthy Brown. At the time of the last
edition, McCarthy Brown had known Mama Lola (Alourdes) for 35 years. Her work
involves five generations of Vodou healers in Mama Lola’s family. The work begins
with an African ancestor and ends with Claudine Michel’s account of working with
Mama Lola after the Haitian earthquake. The work is a study of how dream and
vision are part of everyday life; how Vodou spirits guide decision-making; and how
healing has as its basis the necessary “fixing” of relationships.

The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea, published in 1988, a more recent classic
enthnography of a tribal group in the Trobriand Islands in Papua New Guinea, written
by Annette B. Weiner. Study begun in 1971, continued in 1972, 1976, 1980, and 1981
for a total of twenty-two months fieldwork. Weiner’s work continues from others
including the famous Malinowski. Weiner’s 15-year-old daughter, Linda,
accompanied her mother in 1972 and contributed to the fieldwork.

Lila Abu-Lughod’s Veiled Sentiments published in 1986, an ethnography about
honor and poetry in the Awlad Ali Bedouin society in the Western Desert of Egypt.
Abu-Lugod’s work began in 1978, and she made her last visit in 1996. She writes
about the changes in anthropology and within the Awlad Ali. Interestingly, as
happens in most cases, the ethnographer, Abu-Lughod in this case, comes to the
research project with a particular subject in mind and has that mind changed by people
and experience. Also, Abu-Lughod is a particularly interesting “halfie” (p. xv): She,
herself, is Arabic on her father’s side. And because she is a woman, her father travels
with her and introduces her to the Awlad Ali and to the family with whom she will
reside. Abu-Lughod notes that her parent’s introduction was probably a first (and only
example) of its kind in ethnography and that she felt a little silly at the time. She was,
after all, the professional, not her father.
September 2014

Anthropology: A Student’s Guide to Theory and Method by Stanley R. Barrett,
published in 2002, chapter one, “Unleashing the Anthropologist: A Historical
Overview”, pages 47-68; chapter introductions; key theories and concepts; and chapter
evaluations.

Jerry D. Moore’s work presenting particular theorists and theories in Visions of
Culture, 2004.

Selections from:
 Invitation to Anthropology, 3rd edition, by Luke Eric Lassiter, 2009.
 Seven Theories of Religion by Daniel L. Pals, 2006.
 Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization by Arjun
Appadurai, 2003.
 Small Places, Large Issues: An Introduction to Social and Cultural
Anthropology by Thomas Hylland Eriksen, 2001.
 Core Concepts in Cultural Anthropology by Robert H. Lavenda and Emily
A. Schultz, 2003.
 Anthropology Unbound by E. Paul Durrenberger and Suzan Erem, 2010.
September 2014