ANTH 102 Introduction to Anthropology: Cultural Anthropology (3) A survey of social and cultural principles inherent in ethnographic descriptions. Students who complete both ANTH 101 & 102 may not receive credit for ANTH 340, BEHS 340, or BEHS 341.

At completion of ANTH 102 students should be able to:

1. Identify the primary interests and research methods of cultural anthropology and anthropological linguistics.
2. Differentiate among basic cultural anthropological concepts such as norm, value, culture shock, cultural relativism, ethnocentrism, ethnicity, social race, enculturation (aka socialization), acculturation, status, role and stratification, caste, and class.
3. Describe the distinguishing features and social effects of the major modes of subsistence upon which human societies have been based.
4. Differentiate among historical, descriptive linguistics, historical linguistics and sociolinguistics as well as understand the methodology of anthropological linguistics with its focus on non-Western and unwritten languages.
5. Discuss the application of linguistic knowledge to selected social issues such as, for example but not limited to, national language policy, diglossia, elite/nonelite language forms (dialects, pidgins and creoles), social class, ethnic identity, gender and occupation.
6. Differentiate among the four levels (i.e., band, tribe, chiefdom, state) of sociopolitical integration that anthropologists have generalized from the ethnographic and historical record.
7. Identify gender issues found in different types of societies by using such concepts as gender role, gender stratification, the public/domestic dichotomy, gender identity, gendered division of labor and gender inequality.
8. Identify the various kinds of descent groups, post-marital residence customs, mate selection norms, economic aspects of marriage contracts, plural marriage customs, and family forms.
9. Distinguish among such economic aspects of social life as reciprocity (general, balanced & negative), market exchange, money (special & general purpose), redistribution, mode of production, division of labor, and World System theory.
10. Identify some religious manifestations of social change (revitalization movements, cargo cults), the purpose and stages of a rite of passage, the functions (social, psychological, cognitive) of religion, the types of religious organizations, and the logic and uses of magic.
11. Provide examples of the application of anthropologically derived knowledge or use of ethnographic research methods in one or more of the following areas: health care, business, education.
12. Recognize, from concrete written examples (ethnographies, etc.), any of the concepts listed in the foregoing course outcomes.
13. Convey knowledge of the foregoing issues, concepts and theories through Internet assignments, UMUC'S Online library, essays, exams and/or online conferences.

Cultural Anthropology is concerned with observing, describing, and understanding the totality of human cultural diversity on this planet, a quest that makes it the broadest and most holistic of the social sciences. While anthropologists pioneered in the study of non western and pre modern peoples, the methods and theories they developed can be used to analyze modern societies as well, especially those which are multicultural. They also enable us, through the closely related field of archaeology and the study of prehistory, to acquire a deeper and broader historical perspective than is possible through the use of written documents only.

This course will focus on the nature of culture and how that makes us different from all other species as well as the relationship of culture to social organization and the relationship of both to the physical environment and the various levels of economic subsistence devised by humans in their quest for survival. To do so, we will follow the traditional approaches of ethnography, the study of a single culture, ethnology, the comparison of several cultures, and anthropological linguistics. Some attention will also be given to the emerging application of anthropologically derived knowledge in health care, education and business settings.

Exams                45%
Written Projects (3) 45%
Class Discussions    10%
Total               100%

1. Practicing Ethnographic Methods: A Cross Cultural Interview
   
   Identify, meet and interview a person raised in an entirely different cultural tradition and society from that of your own using the techniques you have learned from the ethnographic methodology section of this course. Compare the topics discussed to ethnographic information about the same group from printed sources, the Internet or the UMUC Online Library. Discuss what you think are the strengths and weaknesses of this process with reference to both the discipline of anthropology and your own personal background.
   
   
2. Understanding Ethnographic Description: An Analytical Project
   
   With the aid of your instructor select an ethnography for analysis. Identify the anthropological concepts, which are most central to the author's arguments throughout the book. Discuss what kind of theoretical approach(s) is evident in the ethnography? If more than one is used, identify which is dominant. Ask yourself if you had done research among this groups with the same goals as the author, what changes would you make in research methodology - if any? Discuss what you learned about the culture and society discussed in the ethnography that could be considered universal to all human populations, true of only some kinds of human populations, peculiar only to the particular society discussed in the ethnography?
   
   
3. Doing Ethnology: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Project
   
   Choose two ethnographic books and at least one additional scholarly source for the two groups you are comparing. Find sources written by anthropologists (preferably) or other social scientists that are based on their primary research (interviews, surveys, participant observation) and published in learned journals or scholarly books. Kinship systems, marital customs, political organization, aspects of economic life, main modes of subsistence, magico-religious belief and practice, social change, settlement patterns, family structure and organization, modes of social control, and many others are possible topics to be covered. However, you will be limited by what you can find in the ethnographic literature. Discuss what was learned from a comparison of these two cultures that may be universal to all human populations, true of only some human populations or peculiar only to one or the other of the societies you studied?
   
   
4. Outside the Academy: What can you do with an anthropology degree besides teach?
   
   In this assignment, you are to interview a professional cultural anthropologist, linguist, applied anthropologist, or archaeologist who, though s/he may do some teaching, is primarily working outside the university system to earn their living. Look for them in organizations such as state governments, museums, federal agencies, foreign governments, corporations, branches of the armed forces, international nongovernmental organizations, the World Bank, etc. Identify the professional you interviewed and explain in detail the work he or she does. Detail the skills used by this professional in his/her work. Evaluate the importance of the anthropological perspective in this professional's work by analyzing it in terms of the basic anthropological unifying concepts of culture, ethnicity, holism, universalism, adaptation, ethno-history and cultural relativism. Does this anthropologist use or favor a particular theoretical orientation in their work.

Week 1:
Introduction to Anthropology.
The Four Subfields of Anthropology Ch. 1, 2
and their interrelationship. The nature of culture. 

Anthropological Research Methods and anthropological innovation.Cultural relativism. Emic and etic approaches. Historical overview of anthropological theories.

Week 2:

The evolution of the capacity for culture. Ch.3

Language and Culture Ch. 4
Language as a characteristic of our species.
Descriptive linguistics - tools for understanding language.
Historical linguistics - changes in languages over time.

Week 3:
Patterns of Subsistence; Modes of Production. Ch.5 Food Collection (hunting, gathering) and
food domestication (pastoral, horticultural, agricultural,
industrial societies and information based societies).

Marriage, Family and Residence Patterns. Ch. 6 & 8
Their relationship to the environment and
modes of production. Gender roles, gender stratification,
and inequality in the context of marriage.
Monogamy, polygyny, polyandry. Nuclear and extended families.

Week 4:
Patterns of Kinship and Descent Ch.9
Descent sytems: patriliny, matriliny, bilaterality,
Kinship as the basis for political and economic alliance.

MIDTERM EXAM

Week 5:Economic Processes. Ch. 7 
Reciprocity, redistribution, market exchange and world system theory.

Week 6:
Political Organization and Social Order. Ch. 10 & 11
Band, tribe, chiefdom, state.
Social control, conflict resolution, the big man system.
Modern law.

Class and Caste, Ch. 12

Week 7:

Ethnicity, race and racism Ch.13,Sexuality and Gender  Ch.14

Psychological Anthropology, Ch. 15 and Religion and the Supernatural. Ch. 16

Week 8
Art, Ch. 18 and Applied Anthropology Ch. 19
Aims, ethics and roles for anthropologists
in applied settings.
Development Anthropology
Medical Anthropology
Educational Anthropology
Corporate and Business Anthropology

Final Exam