ANTH& 206 Cultural Anthropology (5 credits)
Distribution Area Fulfilled Social Sciences; General Transfer Elective
Formerly ANTHR 220-CCN
Course Description
We use anthropological concepts and methods to explore and understand diverse cultures and perspectives. We learn: how culture is created; how and why cultures differ; impacts of colonialism and globalization; strategies for positive social change.
Course Content
A. The discipline of anthropology:
Subdisciplines: archaeology, cultural anthropology, biological anthropology, linguistic anthropology
Specializations (e.g., medical anthropology, forensic anthropology, primatology)
academic vs. applied anthropology
careers in anthropology
B. The anthropological approach: holism, comparison, cultural relativism
Empathy (a focus on understanding another perspective, not on judging)
Strategies for avoiding and dealing with ethnocentric reactions.
C. The culture concept: what culture is and how it works.
D. Ethnographic research methods, field techniques, and ethics.
Formal and informal interviews
Key consultants
Participant observation
Observation vs. description vs. interpretation
Emic and etic perspectives
E. The socio-cultural construction of reality, including the categories of race and gender.
F. Cross-cultural exploration of social and cultural patterns, including:
subsistence and economic systems
family, marriage, descent, and kinship systems
political systems and social control
social stratification and power relations
gender
belief systems, ideology, and worldview
the impact of scale on all of the above
G. Ongoing impacts of colonialism, modernization, and globalization.
H. The application of anthropological concepts and approaches for positive personal and social change.
Student Outcomes
- Describe core elements of the discipline of anthropology.
- Apply anthropological concepts, methods, and frameworks in order to analyze diverse cultural systems, including their own.
- Explain how different parts of culture relate to and reinforce each other.
- Discuss general patterns that characterize societies of different scales.
- Engage diverse cultures and perspectives with openness, empathy, and a focus on understanding, while avoiding ethnocentric judgmentalism.
- Reflect on the impact of individual choices, institutional policies, and cultural systems on local, regional, and global communities.
- Explain how they can apply anthropological concepts and methods to analyze and address societal issues.
Degree Outcomes
Social Sciences: Graduates analyze and interpret social phenomenon using social science theories and methods.Intercultural Engagement: Graduates demonstrate self-efficacy in intercultural engagement to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion through reflections and expressions of cultural humility, empathy, and social and civic engagement and action. Further, graduates examine how identities/positionalities such as races, social classes, genders, sexual orientations, disabilities, and cultures impact perceptions, actions, and the distribution of power and privilege in communities, systems, and institutions. Global Citizenship: Graduates will be able to critically examine the relationship between self, community, and/or environments, and to evaluate and articulate potential impacts of choices, actions, and contributions for the creation of sustainable and equitable systems. Critical, Creative, and Reflective Thinking: Graduates will evaluate, analyze, synthesize, and generate ideas; construct informed, meaningful, and justifiable conclusions; and process feelings, beliefs, biases, strengths, and weaknesses as they relate to their thinking, decisions, and creations.
Lecture Contact Hours 50
Lab Contact Hours 0
Clinical Contact Hours 0
Total Contact Hours 50
Potential Methods
A. Examinations
B. Quizzes
C. Individual written assignments / essays
D. Individual or group work in class
E. Research assignments
F. Class presentation
G. Large and small group discussions
H. Group assignments
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