Culture: The Human Mirror Anthropology 110-001 | American University | Spring 2003 Tue/Fri 12:45-2:00pm | Location: MCK 108 Instructor: Josh Snodgrass phone: (202) 885-1830 (Anthropology Department) e-mail: j-snodgrass@northwestern.edu

Class Location & Time:

• Tuesdays & Fridays, 12:45-2:00 pm in MCK 108

Instructor Office Hours & Location:

• Tuesdays 3:00-5:00 pm in Ward Coffee Shop

Teaching Assistant:

• Joshua Harriman (e-mail: big_cool_arrow@yahoo.com; Office hours: Wednesday 2:00-4:00 pm; Office location: Battelle-Tompkins Cubicles--Across from the Anthropology Department Office)

Announcements:

• (posted 4/23/03) There will be two review sessions next week in preparation for the final exam.  Joshua Harriman will hold a review session from 2-4pm on Wednesday (April 30) in the Battelle-Tompkins cubicles.  I will run a review session from 5-6pm on Wednesday (April 30) in the Anthropology Lounge in Battelle-Tompkins T-30.  Please come prepared with questions.

• (posted 4/12/03) The second exam was returned on April 11th.  For information on the exam, including mean, range, and curve, follow this link.

• (posted 4/12/03) If you missed the film First Contact, it can be viewed at the Media Services Center (VHS 2102).  There are discussion questions on the movie (see below).

• (posted 3/30/03) There will be two review sessions next week in preparation for the second exam.  Joshua Harriman will hold a review session from 2-4pm on Wednesday in the Battelle-Tompkins cubicles.  I will run a review session from 5-6pm on Thursday in the Anthropology Lounge in Battelle-Tompkins T-30.  Please come prepared with questions.

• (posted 3/25/03) If you missed the film Tough Guise: Violence, Media, and the Crisis in Masculinity, it can be viewed at the Media Services Center (VHS 6196).  There are discussion questions on the movie (see below).

• (posted 3/23/03) Please note that I have made additional changes to the course schedule.  We will be covering less material and as a consequence some of the reading assignments have been removed.  Please see details below.

• (posted 3/9/03) The first exam was returned on March 7th.  For information on the exam, including mean, range, and curve, follow this link.

• (posted 3/9/03) The film that I was planning on showing on Friday, March 7 could not be shown because the VCR was stolen out of the classroom.  Consequently, it is your responsibility to view this video at the Media Services Center at the library.  The video is Mesopotamia: Return to Eden (VHS 5173).  There are discussion questions on the movie (see below).
  

• Lecture outlines are now available.  See links below.

• Copies of the textbooks are available on two-hour reserve at the library.

Course Summary

This course provides an overview of the field of anthropology, which is generally divided into four subfields: 1) cultural or social anthropology, the comparative study of human societies and cultures; 2) archaeology, the study of historic and prehistoric human societies through material remains; 3) biological anthropology, the study of human evolution and biological adaptations of living people; and 4) anthropological linguistics, the study of language systems within a cultural framework.  Culture, often defined as the non-biological transmission of knowledge, values, and beliefs, has historically been a major focus of the discipline of anthropology and is the subject of this course.  This course traces changes in human culture over the past 2.5 million years, from early hominids to the development of agriculture and cities to contemporary societies and the diversity found in the world today.  Anthropology’s holistic approach provides important insights into contemporary cultural diversity and cultural change through time, two themes of this course.

General Education Information

Culture: The Human Mirror is a foundation course in Curricular Area 3, the International and Intercultural Experience, in the university’s General Education Program.  This course is the first of a two-course sequence.  Students who successfully complete this course may complete the sequence by taking one of the following second-level courses in Area 3:

        Sex, Gender, and Culture (ANTH-215)
        India: Its Living Traditions (ANTH-230)
        Human Geography: Peoples, Places, and Cultures (SIS-210)
        Confronting Our Differences/Discovering Our Similarities (SIS-220)
        The World of Islam (SIS-245)
        Latin America: History, Art, Literature (LFS-210)
        Asian and African Religious Traditions (RELG-210)
        Education for International Development (SOCY-285)

Books (Required)

Kottak, C. 2001. Anthropology: The Exploration of Human Diversity (9th Edition). McGraw-Hill.

Podolefsky, A. and Brown, P. 1999. Applying Anthropology: An Introductory Reader (7th Edition). McGraw-Hill.

Course Requirements

Your grade in the course will reflect performance on three exams, three short reaction papers, and your attendance and participation.  Exams will include objective (multiple choice & matching), fill-in-the-blank, short answer, and short essay sections.  Exams will be based on lectures, readings from the textbooks, class discussions, and videos.  The final exam will be comprehensive, yet will focus primarily on the material from the last part of the course.  Material on the exams may be different than that presented in the books, and may only be covered during course lecture and discussion.  Therefore, you are advised to arrange to get course notes from the instructor if you miss a class.  Make-up exams will only be given with official university excuses (generally medical) and must be approved by the instructor.

During the semester, you will write on your choice of three topics (based on five possibilities—see “Special Topics” on the schedule) in the form of short (two page) reaction papers.  For each of these response papers, you will write on a specific topic and discuss the ideas based on your own reaction to the topic, as well as course readings and class discussions.  Each reaction paper is due one week after it is discussed in class (e.g., if you write on race your reaction paper will be due on March 11).

Grading

Exam 1 -- 20%
Exam 2 -- 20%
Exam 3 -- 20%
Reaction Papers (3) -- 20%
Attendance & Participation -- 20%

Standards of Performance Evaluation:

A    Superior: demonstration of superior work in oral contributions and writing; all assignments turned in on time

B    Very Good: solid work evidenced by careful synthesis of reading, timely contributions to class discussion, and clear, logical writing; all or most assignments turned in on time

C    Satisfactory: work demonstrates some understanding of the materials and an average performance on written assignments and class discussion; some assignments turned in on time

D    Inconsistent: weak performance on all assignments and class discussion; late in turning in written work (or work is not completed); failure to meet minimum attendance requirements

F    Failing: failure to meet minimum course goals in written assignments, class participation, and other course requirements

Academic Integrity Code:

The Academic Integrity Code defines procedures and penalties for such serious infractions as plagiarism, cheating, and/or falsified data or documentation.  The instructor anticipates that students will adhere to American University's Academic Integrity Code.  Students should familiarize themselves with their responsibilities.  You may obtain copies of the Academic Integrity Code from the General Education Office or from the instructor.

Exam Dates

February 28 -- Exam 1
April 4 -- Exam 2
May 2 -- Exam 3

Schedule

• Two pages (double-spaced)

• Please spellcheck and proofread your paper

• You might want to organize your paper into three sections: 1) a really brief (1-2 sentences) summary of the main points of the article; 2) your reaction to the article (I really mean this! Did it interest you? Annoy you? Confuse you? Will you take a longer smell of your next date?); and 3) a link to something we discussed in the class or you read for this class (or another class).

• What do you think about the idea of our genes influencing our mate choices?

• How important do you think body odor is for a potential mate?

• What is your feeling on the possibility that birth control pills may influence our mate choices?

• The last few paragraphs of the article make it clear that there are people who do not feel that this research should be conducted (not just that they disagree with the conclusions of the research).  Do you think this is "dangerous" research?  Is there such a thing?  Should it be stopped?  Should there be oversight?

• Two pages (double-spaced)

• Please spellcheck and proofread your paper

• You might want to organize your paper into three sections: 1) a brief summary of the main points of the article; 2) your reaction to the article; and 3) a link to other issues discussed in class or that you find particularly relevant.  In your summary, you might want to focus on one or some of the questions raised in the introductory piece, including: What is the fundamental difference between the progressivist view and the revisionist interpretation? How did the development of agriculture affect people's health? and How did the development of agriculture affect social equality, including gender equality?

• Did this change your views on hunter-gatherer groups? 

• Did it make you think about your own diet?

• Could research on past populations make you change your own diet?  Why or why not?  Should we rethink our nutritional guidelines?

• Were you aware that this much information (i.e., about health status, age, sex, etc.) could be reconstructed from the skeleton?

• Many members of the class in the last reaction paper discussed funding for research.  Some people thought that the last study (i.e., on t-shirt smelling college students) should be funded and also that additional studies should be funded.  Others couldn't believe that it was funded and thought that the research money should be used instead to conduct more research on cancer or HIV/AIDS.  Do you think research on the health of past populations should be funded?  Why or why not?

• Another issue involves ethics.  Do you think that it is ethical to conduct research on graves of Native Americans, such as those discussed in this article?  Would your opinion change if the grave was 100 years old?  How about 5000 years old?  What if the graves were disturbed during the construction of a new on-ramp to Interstate-95?

• Two pages (double-spaced)

• Please spellcheck and proofread your paper

• You might want to organize your paper into three sections: 1) a brief summary of the main points of the article; 2) your reaction to the article; and 3) a link to other issues discussed in class or that you find particularly relevant.  You may want to answer some of the discussion questions from class.  See below.

• Two pages (double-spaced)

• Please spellcheck and proofread your paper

• You might want to organize your paper into three sections: 1) a really brief (1-2 sentences) summary of the main points of the article; 2) your reaction to the article; and 3) a link to something we discussed in the class or you read for this class (or another class).

• Do you think that the fast-food industry has some responsibility for the growing epidemic of obesity and related health problems in the United States?  Do you think they should be required to pay financial damages?

• What about the responsibility of American fast-food restaurants in foreign countries (especially in the developing world) where people may not have as much access to nutrition or health information?

• How do the issues of class and race fit into this discussion?
  

• Do you feel that the case against the fast-food industry is similar or different from the case against the tobacco industry?

• Two pages (double-spaced)

• Please spellcheck and proofread your paper

• You might want to organize your paper into three sections: 1) a really brief (1-2 sentences) summary of the main points of the article; 2) your reaction to the article; and 3) a link to something we discussed in the class or you read for this class (or another class).

• This article raises a lot of issues that we have discussed in this class.  One obvious example is gender.  Do you think these gender differences in patterns of cell phone use and display hold true in the U.S.?  How about AU?  If they really are due to differences in mating strategies, why might this be?  What are some other differences in mating practices between men and women?  Are these differences dictated by culture or are they the products of biology (or both)?

• You might want to write about the effects of technology (if any) on dating or marriage practices.  Does the cell phone really change anything or does it just replace something else?  What will happen as cell phones become more common and most people can afford them and have them?  Is this happening already?  What about other technology, such as PDAs, that could play the same role as cell phones did in this study? 

• You might also want to think about other technological innovations, such as e-mail or internet dating services, and their effects on dating and marriage.  A few of the websites that I found in a quick search are: Hot or Not? (http://www.hotornot.com/), Shag or Gag? (http://www.shagorgag.net), and Am I A Geek or Not? (http://www.amigeekornot.com/).  Also, try this one (http://www.modernhumorist.com/mh/0011/monkey/).