Document Type

Syllabus

Publication Date

Spring 2023

Course Description

In this introductory course, we will address the methods of inquiry characteristic of cultural anthropology. Focusing on both so-called “exotic” cultures and our own, we will also explore the great diversity existing in human culture, while at the same time searching for cultural universals—the similarities that make all humans fundamentally alike. Cultural anthropologists have developed a set of ideas and practical activities that help them learn about people through interaction and observation. These anthropological methods and practices provide a lens through which trained individuals can learn about others while simultaneously learning about themselves. Anthropologists pay close attention to the way people act, talk, and think about their culture, themselves, and their world. During the course of the class we will be addressing a number of new perspectives to appreciate the diversity in our world and society while we try to better understand our place within them. we will be addressing a number of new perspectives to appreciate the diversity in our world and society while we try to better understand our place within them.

Student Outcomes

This course has four main goals: 1) to introduce students to the essential concepts and intellectual methods that typify cultural anthropology, 2) to expose students to the great variety existing in human cultures so that they can place their own particular life in a cross-cultural perspective, 3) to provide students with a base for interpreting and understanding key anthropological concepts concerning such topics as culture, ethnicity, religion, race, and gender, and 4) to enable students the opportunity to engage in some of the key methodological practices associated with cultural anthropology such as participant observation. Power, Privilege and Diversity (PPD) Learning Goals include: 1) Recognition: Demonstrate your recognition of the barriers to inclusion for groups that experience marginalization in the United States, 2) Historical/structural analysis: Understand and analyze the structures and institutions of power that have historically created and sustained marginalization in the United States, and 3) Lived experiences: Understand and assess inequities, perspectives, and lived experiences for groups that experience marginalization in the United States.

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