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ANT112: CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
(3 Semester Hours)
Although this course concentrates on the segment of anthropology known as cultural anthropology, the discipline’s overall objective is to understand the human condition through the study of all human beings at all times and places. Drawing on several related disciplines as well as their own methods and specializations in physical anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, cultural anthropologists seek answers to diverse questions on the common theme of what constitutes "humanity" in the long run: Where do we come from? How do we know? How has the Western world's desire to remake other societies into its own image robbed us of the gifts of other cultures? Why is Columbus a controversial figure? Where does individual identity begin and end? Who or what is a kin-based society? What makes sex so interesting and pervasive as a topic in our lives? What is language? What is religion? How do tribal societies maintain social order and harmony without the vast legal and governmental institutions we rely on? How do cultures change? Reinvent themselves? Select for extinction? Or survive and prosper? By pursuing such questions through the subject matter of cultural anthropology, students have a chance to consider anthropology’s relevance to today’s multicultural world, to other disciplines in the sciences and the humanities, and to their own lives. By providing a comparative perspective on the familiar and the strange — on American society and the rest of the world, past and present — this course also teaches us what we are by exploring what we are not, or think we are not, relative to what we want to be. The understanding of ourselves and other cultures that emerges as a result has great practical value today, given our increasingly multicultural society and its ever expanding global connections.

TEXTS:
Ferraro, Gary. Cultural Anthropology: An Applied Perspective. Sixth Edition. Boston: Wadsworth, 2004.

Khanna, Sunil K. Study Guide for Ferraro's Cultural Anthropology, Sixth Editon. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2006.

Schedule:
T-Th, 11:10 - 12:30
(1) Opening remarks; Mirror for Man [Hu-Mans] (goals of the course; the value of systematic thinking; past, present, future; the five fields of anthropology; physical, cultural, linguistic, and applied anthropology; archaeology; anthropology as science and art. Readings: Ferraro 1; handouts, "Some Rules." Video possibilities: excerpts from "Blue Planet," "2001: A Space Odyssey."

(2) Human Diversity and the Nature of Culture (definitions of culture: Walter Cronkite; Brooklyn; the biology dish; symbols and meanings: the "class" definition; race, language, and culture; principle of cultural relativism; nature and functions of ethnocentrism, etc.). Readings: Ferraro 2. Video: "Shock of the Other."

(3 ) Applied Anthropology (and "pure" anthropology; sponsors; specialized roles; ethics and espionage; "get-a-lot in Camelot"; responsibilities; the American Anthropological Association). Readings: Ferraro 3.

(4) The Growth of Anthropological Theory ("Undt zo, vat’s a teeoree?" Primary questions and variations; More "an-emics and em-etics"; cross-cultural variations; universals; links to methods). Readings: Ferraro 4.

(5) Methods in Cultural Anthropology (the fieldwork experience; culture shock;"mucking around" and research design; immersion and detachment; being an "other": "going native" and attendant problems; internet prospects). Readings: Ferraro 5 & Appendix pp. 356-58. Video: "A Man Called Bee."

(6) Language and Communication (cultural anthropology and the field of linguistics; descriptive linguistics and the structure of language; language and reality; sociolinguistics; origins of language and linguistic change. Animal communication systems; inter-species communication. Do chimps have language?). Video: "Colorless Green Ideas." Readings: Ferraro 6.

(7a) Test Review

(7b) First test

(8) Getting Food (procurement categories and collection strategies; horticulture and agriculture; transhumance and nomadic pastoralism; the Neolithic Revolution; industrialism and environmental impact; cultural and technological adaptation to changing environmental circumstances). Readings: Ferraro 7. Video: "An Ecology of Mind."

(9) Reciprocity and Exchange Systems (kin-based economies; household production; reciprocity, redistribution, and market exchange; political economy: example, Polynesia; marital exchange systems). Readings: Ferraro 8. Video: "A Poor Man Shames Us All."

(10) Social Organization (kinship in biology and culture; forms of parenthood; forms of the family; systems of classification; descent groups as property groups; household organization; "A relative is a person who acts like one"; adoption and fosterage). Readings: Ferraro 9.

(11) Sex, Love, and Marriage (evolution of sexual behavior; pair bonding, group bonding; the "Woman who Never Evolved"; sexual differences; gender; body symbolism: adornment and mutilation; love and limerance; the exotic and the erotic; electric love and cybersex: "Meet me in outer space, or is that really inner space?"). Readings: Ferraro 10. Video: "Strange Relations."

(12) Gender, Personality, and Worldview (enculturation; personal identity; psychological anthropology; the social construction of reality). Readings: Ferraro 11. Video: "Mistaken Identity."

(13) Political Order and Social Control (bands, tribes, chiefdoms, and states. Who’s in charge here? For what purpose? Tinhorn totalitarians, "Big Men," and chiefs; the nature of authority; power by achievement; power by ascription; kinship and politics). Readings: Ferraro 12 & 13. Video: "Tightrope of Power."

(14) Second test.

(15) Religion and the Supernatural (symbols and the social construction of reality; ritual; shamans, priests, scientists, and artists and the need for understanding "reality beyond appearance"; dreams, hallucinogens, and the origins of religion; functions and varieties of religious thought). Readings: Ferraro 14. Video possibilities: "Touching the Timeless"; "Inventing Reality." Handout: "The Nacirema."

(16) The Creative Explosion (origins of art and religion; art, myth, and ritual; special places, special purposes; the art of memory; searching for answers; creativity as a cultural process). Readings: Ferraro 15. Video possibilities: "The First Storytellers"; "The Art of Living."

(17) Change and the Future (the role of the individual in culture change; horseless ideas; invention, innovation, and creativity; Whose planet is this anyway? Colonialism and culture change; ex-primitives, literacy, and modern technology; future shock, future loss, future changed?). Readings: Ferraro 16 & 17. Video possibilities: "Contact"; "At the Threshold." Handouts: "Lost Tribes, Lost Knowledge"; "American Popular Culture."

(18) LAST CLASS! Review for final.

(19) Final Exam.