Anthropology 1102
INTRODUCTION TO ANTHROPOLOGY
Spring 2003
Instructor: Peter Brosius
542-1463
Email:
pbrosius@arches.uga.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday,
Course Description
This course is designed to provide a survey of the field
of anthropology, addressing the question of human diversity across space and
time, while at the same time fulfilling the environmental literacy
requirement. It is arranged such that it
provides an overview of the main subfields of the discipline: biological
anthropology, archeology, and cultural anthropology. In providing this overview, we will pay close
attention to the modes of explanation anthropologists have employed to
understand human physical and cultural variability. The purpose of the course is to bring
students to an understanding and appreciation of the diversity and complexity
of human cultures and societies -- past and present -- and to critically
evaluate various theoretical frameworks in the discipline of anthropology. Particular attention will be devoted to human
interactions with the natural environment and the ways that anthropologists
have endeavored to understand and interpret these interactions.
Grades
for the course will be determined on the basis of two midterm examinations and
a final examination, each of which will be worth 1/3 of your grade. Exams are not cumulative. Early exams will not be given to
accommodate travel plans. Makeup
exams will be given only in the event of illness or other serious matters, and
verification must be provided.
Required Texts:
Kottak, Conrad - Anthropology: The Exploration of Human Diversity, Ninth Edition. Mcgraw-Hill
Endicott, Kirk & Robert Welsch - Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in Anthopology. McGraw-Hill/Dushkin
UNIV 1116
In conjunction with this course, we are also fortunate in being able to offer UNIV 1116, a pass/fail one-hour course that is designed to help students perform well in this class. Students who take the UNIV 1116 typically earn an “A” or a “B” in the targeted class. In this class you will learn how to get more out of your reading, prepare for and take class exams, keep up with assignments, understand and remember course content, and much more.
The instructor, Adrienne Boyd, will attend all classes and will read all assigned material. During the UNIV 1116 class she will set up activities that help students think about the concepts and to study in more productive ways. Please note that the adjunct instructor will not tutor or lecture during the UNIV 1116 classes.
If you are interested in enrolling in UNIV 1116, you have two options:
Class times Location Call Number
T
W
Schedule of Topics and Assignments
Introduction
Thurs., Jan. 9: Introduction:
Explaining Human Diversity.
Kottak, Chap. 1: What is anthropology?
Tues., Jan. 14: The Roots
of Anthropology: the Enlightenment, Classical Evolutionism and the Concept of
Progress.
Kant, E.
1973. “What is enlightenment?” In The
Enlightenment: A Comprehensive Anthology, Pp. 383-390, P. Gay (ed.).
Wernick, R. 1997. “Declaring an open season on the wisdom of the ages”. Smithsonian Magazine, May 1997:72-83.
Biological Anthropology
Thurs., Jan. 16: Evolutionary Principles.
Kottak, Chap. 3: Evolution
and genetics.
Tues., Jan. 21: Trends in Hominid Evolution.
Kottak, Chap. 5: Primate evolution.
Kottak, Chap. 6: Early hominids.
Kottak, Chap. 7: Modern humans.
Endicott & Welsch
- Issue 1:Did Homo sapiens originate only in
Endicott & Welsch - Issue 2: Did Neanderthals interbreed with modern humans?
Thurs., Jan. 23: Primate Ecology and Social Behavior.
Kottak, Chap. 4: The primates.
Endicott & Welsch - Issue 5: Can apes learn language?
Tues., Jan. 28: Human
Adaptability.
Kottak, Chap. 8: Human diversity and “race”.
Thurs., Jan. 30: The Concept of Race.
Endicott & Welsch - Issue 3: Should anthropology abandon the concept of race?
Tues., Feb. 4: Sociobiology.
Endicott & Welsch - Issue 4: Are humans inherently violent?
Endicott & Welsch - Issue 13: Do sexually egalitarian societies exist?
Thurs., Feb. 6: First Exam
Archeology
Tues., Feb. 11: What is Archeology?: The Meaning of Garbage.
Endicott & Welsch - Issue 6: Did
people first arrive in the
Endicott & Welsch - Issue 17: Should the remains of prehistoric Native Americans be reburied rather than studied?
Thurs., Feb. 13: The Origins of Agriculture and the Evolution of
Social Complexity.
Kottak, Chap. 9: The
first farmers.
Kottak, Chap. 10: The first cities and states.
Endicott & Welsch - Issue 7: Did Polynesians descend from Melanesians?
Endicott & Welsch - Issue 9: Were environmental factors responsible for the Mayan collapse?
Tues., Feb. 18: Archeology, Biological Anthropology and Cultural Anthropology Converge:
The Study of Hunter-Gatherers.
Endicott & Welsch - Issue 11: Are San hunter-gatherers basically pastoralists who have lost their herds?
Thurs., Feb. 20: Slide presentation: The Penan of Sarawak.
Endicott & Welsch - Issue 12: Do hunter-gatherers need supplemental food sources to live in tropical rain forests?
Cultural Anthropology
Tues., Feb. 25: Boas, Mead and Benedict: Historical particularism,
Culture and Personality.
Kottak, Chap. 11: Culture.
Kottak, Chap. 18: Gender.
Endicott & Welsch - Issue 10: Should cultural anthropology model itself on the natural sciences?
Thurs., Feb. 27: British Social Anthropology and French
Structuralism: Radcliffe-Brown, Malinowski,
Evans-Pritchard, Levi-Strauss.
Kottak, Chap. 15: Families,
kinship, and descent.
Kottak, Chap. 16: Marriage.
Tues., March 4: Sacred Cattle
and Profane Pigs: Neoevolutionism, Cultural Ecology
and Cultural Materialism.
Kottak, Chap. 14: Making
a living.
Kottak, Chap. 17: Political systems.
Thurs., March 6: Linguistic Anthropology: The Sapir-Whorf
Hypothesis, Sociolinguistics and Folk Classification.
Kottak, Chap. 13: Language and communication.
Tues., March 11: Interpretive and Post-Structuralist
Approaches.
Foucault,
M. 1984.
“We other Victorians” and “The repressive hypothesis.” In The
Foucault Reader, Pp. 292-329, P. Rabinow (ed.).
Geertz, C.
1973. “Deep play: Notes on the
Balinese cockfight.” In
The Interpretation of Cultures, Pp.
412-453.
Endicott & Welsch - Issue 16: Do
museums misrepresent ethnic communities around the world?
Thurs., March 13: Doing Fieldwork: Death in
Kottak, Chap. 2: In
the field.
Kottak, Chap. 19: Religion.
Rosaldo, R.
1984. “Grief and a headhunter’s
rage: On the cultural force of emotions.” In Text, Play and Story: The Construction and Reconstruction of Self and
Society, Pp. 178-195,
Tues., March 25: Second Exam
Thurs., March 27: Guest Lecture by
Sarah Hunt: The Anthropology of Water
Hassoun, R.
1998. “Water between Arabs and
Israelis: Researching twice-promised resources.” In Water,
Culture, and Power: Local Struggles in a Global Context, Pp. 313-338, J.M.
Donahue & B.R. Johnston (eds.).
Tues., April 1: The Politics of Interpretation: (1) The Mead/Freeman Controversy and (2) Chagnon
and The Yanomami.
Endicott & Welsch - Issue 14: Are Yanomamo violence and warfare natural human efforts to maximize reproductive fitness?
Endicott & Welsch - Issue 15: Was Margaret Mead’s fieldwork on Samoan adolescents fundamentally flawed?
Critical Ecology and Environmental
Anthropology
Thurs., April 3: Nature: Real, Imagined, Contested.
Rappaport, R. 1992 "The Anthropology of
Trouble." American Anthropologist 95(2):295-303.
Conklin, B. 1997. "Body paint, feathers, and VCRs:
aesthetics and authenticity in Amazonian activism." American
Ethnologist 24(4):711-737.
Tues., April 8: Significance and Social Being in
Kottak, Appendix: American
popular culture.
Freund, P. & G. Martin. 1996.
“The commodity that is eating the world: The automobile, the enviroment, and capitalism.” CNS
7(4):3-29.
Thurs., April 10: Place and Space: Geographies of Power and the
Cultural Construction of Landscapes.
Kottak, Chap. 12: Ethnicity.
Malkki, Lisa. 1992.
"National geographic: the rooting of peoples and the territorialization of national identity among scholars and
refugees", Cultural Anthropology
7(1):24-44.
Cronon, W. 1995. "The trouble with wilderness or, getting
back to the wrong nature," in
Tues., April 15: Logging and Land Rights in
Kottak, Chap. 23: Cultural exchange and survival.
Endicott & Welsch - Issue 19: Do
anthropologists have a moral responsibility to defend the interests of ‘less
advantaged’ communities?
Brosius, J.P. 1997. "Endangered people, endangered forest:
environmentalist representations of indigenous knowledge," Human Ecology 25(1):47-69.
Thurs., April 17: Population: The Continuing Relevance of Malthus
Kaplan,
R. 1994.
“The coming anarchy.” Atlantic Monthly 273(2):44-76.
Dalby, S.
1996. “The environment as
geopolitical threat: Reading Robert Kaplan’s ‘Coming Anarchy’.” Ecumene 3(4):472-496.
Tues., April 22: Pollution: A Cultural Account
Alley, K. 1994. “
Thurs., April 24: Film: Anthropologists at Work
Kottak, Chap. 24: Applied
anthropology.
Tues., April 29: The Anthropology of Globalization
Kottak, Chap. 21: The
modern world system.
Kottak, Chap. 22: Colonialism
and development.
Endicott & Welsch - Issue 18:
Should anthropologists work to eliminate the practice of female circumcision?
Barber, B. 2000.
“Jihad vs. McWorld.” In The
Globalization Reader, Pp. 21-26, F. Lechner &
J. Boli (eds.).
Tuesday, May 6,