Download Varieties of Human Experience- Summer 2010

General Anthropology- July Session 2010
ANTH 100/300: MTWRF 3:20-5:20, FRA 106
Instructor: Meghan Farley Webb, [email protected]
Office: Fraser 612
Office Hours: Wednesdays 2-3, Thursdays 5:30-7:30, & by appointment
Catalogue Description: Lecture and discussion cover the four primary fields of Anthropology:
Biological Anthropology, Linguistics, Social Anthropology, and Archeology. Concepts and
approaches to each field, using past and present examples from around the world will be
examined with an emphasis on the unity of the anthropological approach.
Learning Objectives:
 To increase students’ understanding of the anthropological approach to the study of
societies.
 To explore the field methods associated with each of the four fields.
 To critically engage with important anthropological concepts such as evolution, race,
ethnicity, civilization, and kinship.
 To survey the contributions of key anthropologists.
Required Texts:
Kottak, Conrad
2010 Window on Humanity: A Concise Introduction to General Anthropology. 4th ed.
New York: McGraw/Hill.
Outside Readings:
On occasion throughout the course, you will be required to read outside materials available on
Blackboard.
Bucholtz, Mary
2007 Word Up: Social Meaning of Slang in California Youth Culture. In A Cultural
Approach to Interpersonal Communication: Essential Readings. Leila Monaghan and
Jane E. Goodman, eds. Pp.242-267. Malden: Blackwell.
Renfrew, Colin and Paul Bahn
2004 Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice. 4th ed. New York: Thomas &
Hudson.
- Chapter 1: “The Searchers: The History of Archaeology” (pp. 21-52)
- Chapter 2: “What is Left?: The Variety of Evidence” (pp. 53-58)
Tannen, Deborah
2007 Preface and “Put Down that Paper and Talk to Me”: Rapport-Talk and Report-Talk.
In A Cultural Approach to Interpersonal Communication: Essential Readings. Leila
Monaghan and Jane E. Goodman, eds. Pp.179-194. Malden: Blackwell.
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Course Requirements and Policies:

Blackboard
I will use Blackboard to help manage this class. I will post announcements and make reserve
readings available as PDF files. It is expected that students will check the course’s
Blackboard page daily.

Attendance
Summer offerings are condensed versions of semester-long courses. Attendance is crucial to
students’ abilities to do well on exams and class assignments. I will record attendance daily.
Students missing more than six (6) classes automatically fail the course. However,
attendance alone does not guarantee success in the course.

Participation
In order to fully participate in discussions and activities students must have thoughtfully
prepared for class. Please complete the day’s assigned readings before coming to class.

Cell Phones, Laptops, & Other Electronic Devices
Please silence all electronic devices prior to entering the classroom. Laptops are to be used
for note taking purposes only. Texting, watching movies, and playing on Facebook are not
appropriate classroom activities and are disruptive of the learning process.

Academic Honesty
I take academic honesty seriously. Academic misconduct is unacceptable and will result in a
zero for the assignment and/or other official university action. The university’s official
policy on this is available at
https://documents.ku.edu/policies/governance/USRR.htm#art2sect6. Provision of this URL
serves as notice that students will be fully sanctioned for engaging in academic misconduct
of any kind.

In-Class Activities
Throughout the course we will explore core concepts through hands-on in-class activities.
These activities are available on Bb. Students must print out these activities and bring
them to class the day listed on the syllabus. Write-ups for in-class activities are due at the
beginning of following class meeting (unless otherwise noted). The collaborative nature of
in-class activities prevents students from being able to complete them outside of class time.
However, I will drop the lowest grade earned on in-class activities before calculating final
grades.

Late Papers and Make-Up Policies
Students are to turn in papers and assignments at the beginning of the class on the day that
they are due. Only hard copies will be accepted for grading. Late assignments will be
accepted with a grade reduction of ten points per calendar day.
In-class activities cannot be made up (see above).
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If a student must miss a test due to severe illness or other emergency contact the instructor
immediately to discuss the possibility of a make-up exam.

ANTH 300
Those students enrolled in ANTH 300 must complete, in addition to those assignments
required for ANTH 100, a writing assignment and a class presentation on an influential
anthropologist. As we will discuss the work of these anthropologists as we make our way
through the term, due dates for the presentations will vary (see sign up sheet on Bb). The
due date for the paper will be Friday, July 30. The class presentation should be no more
than 10 minutes and the paper should be 5-7 pages long. More specific instructions are
available on Bb.

Grading
Students’ final grades will be determined using the rubrics below.
Attendance
Participation
Midterm Exam
Final Exam
Write-ups for In-Class Activities
Writing Assignment
ANTH 100
ANTH 300
10%
15%
25%
35%
10%
-----
10%
15%
20%
25%
5%
25%
Students’ grades will be calculated on a standard scale:
92-100:A
90-91: A88-89: B+
82-87: B
78-79: C+
72-77: C
70-71: C68-69: D+
60-61: DBelow 60: F
Course Schedule
Week 1 (July 6-9)
T: Introductions, Chapter 1: What is anthropology?
Physical Anthropology
W: pp. 48-51, Chapter 4: Evolution, Genetics, and Human Variation
In Class: Primordial Soup Activity (Bb)
R: Chapter 5: The Primates
F: Chapter 6: Early Hominins
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80-81: B62-67: D
Week 2 (July 12-16)
M: Chapter 7: Genus Homo
In Class: Hominid Taxonomy Activity (Bb)
Archaeology
T: History of Archaeology (Bb)
W: pp. 52-56 & The Variety of Evidence (Bb)
In Class: Formation Processes (Bb)*
In Class: Classroom “Digging” (Bb)
R: Chapter 8: The First Farmers & Chapter 9: The First Cities and States
Linguistics & Language and Culture
F: Chapter 10: Language and Communication & International Phonetic Alphabet (Bb)
Week 3 (July 19-23)
M: MIDTERM
T: Tannen & Bucholtz (Bb)
In Class: Language and Ideology (Bb)
Cultural Anthropology
W: pp. 57-70 Methodologies & Chapter 2: What is Culture
In Class: Visual Anthropology (Bb)
R: Chapter 11: Making a Living & Chapter 12: Political Systems
F: Chapter 13: Families, Kinship, and Marriage
In Class: Mapping Kinship (Bb)
Week 4 (July 26-30)
M: Chapter 14: Gender & Chapter 17: Ethnicity and Race
T: Chapter 15: Religion
W: Chapter 16: The World System and Colonialism
R: Chapter 18: Applying Anthropology & Chapter 19: Global Issues Today
F: FINAL & Final Paper
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