Rethinking Homo Diversity After New Discovery

Students, the new discovery found in Damanisi, Georgia has pointed to a new theory.  Homo Habilis, Homo Rudolfensis, and  Homo Ergaster may all be Homo Erectus.  Take a look a the article:

http://www.livescience.com/40503-dmanisi-ancient-human-skull-photos.html

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131017173906.htm

Class Activity on Racial Inequality

This link will provide good hand outs and points of discussion.

http://ceio.org/resources/Sept-30th-Resources-from-Dr-Shakti-Butler.shtml

http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/02/ac360-series-kids-on-race-the-hidden-picture-african-american-children-more-optimistic-on-race-than-whites/

List of Topics

List of Topics for 7-10 page report

1.      Dogon's Sirius B star

2.      Passing, Gay and Biracial Groups

3.      Francis Crick

4.      The Zuni Tribe of the South West

5.      HAR-1 Molecule (Increased rate of evolution)

6.      Exhuming the body of boys at the Florida Institute

7.      Film:  "A Class Divided"

8.      Y-Chromose M-130 studied by Dr. Spencer Wells

9.      Describe the Four Ice-Ages Man Experienced

10.  Loves v. The State of Virginia

11.  New World of Pharmaceutical Drug Addiction

12.  Runners from the Kalenjin tribe in Kenya.

13.  The Contradiction in High-Level Competition

14.  Iodine and WWI draftees

15.  Japan's Underwater Pyramid

16.  Moroccan Leather Tanneries (Bird poop)

17.  Tasmanian People

18.  Civil War--Wool v. Cotton Underwear

19.  1st Genocide of the 20th Century (Second Reich and Namibia)

20.  Legalization of Marijuana (Future economy)

21.  History of female warriors

22.  mtDNA Eve Hypothesis

23.  mtDNA and how it can describe the political climate of the past

24.  Venus Figurines (Prehistoric to today)

25.  Anui--Indigenous to Japan

1. 26.  Fall robot soldiers
2. 
   
3. 27.  History of the Letter "J"
4. 
   
5. 28.  How is extremists ideology created
6. 
   
7. 29.  Northern Iran and the Categorization of "Caucasian"
8. 
   
9. 30.  The Price of Beauty

Fall 2013 Syllabus

SYLLABUS

ANTH 105 – Intro To Cultural Anthropology

Fall 2013

Instructor:   Abu Ali Clark

Phone:  203-430-0308

Email:  AClark@gwcc.commnet.edu

Location:  DT / N301

Class Date & Time:  Tuesday & Thursday, 10:40 a.m.—12:00 p.m.

Office Hours: By appointment only

Course Description:

This course covers the basic methodology and subject matter of cultural anthropology. Aspects of social organization such as kinship, religion, economics, political organization, language, and art are covered, in lectures, film, and assignments. There will be an emphasis on both cultures outside the United States and our own cultural dynamics here in this society. Cultures are studied and compared with our own ideas and behavior patterns in an effort to gain a better understanding of our own way of life in the context of human culture.

Course Objectives:

After completing this course, you should have a better understanding of:

Ø  The discipline of anthropology (areas of study, methodology and applications)

Ø  Cultural studies; theories of culture, cultural relativism, ethnocentrism, distribution and consumption

Ø  Social organization, language, art, politics, religion, and the process of cultural change

Student Expectations:

Students are expected to attend all classes and complete all assignments on time. No late assignments will be accepted. Accommodations for specific situations will be made at the discretion of the professor.  Students are expected to demonstrate comprehension of anthropological concepts and terminology as well as able to produce a simple ethnography or ethnological study, as demonstrated in the written work required to be completed throughout the course semester. The specific outcome of the course is to identify the measurable skills students will be expected to demonstrate or specific task students should be able to perform, as verification that the course content has been mastered.  NOTE:  All written assignments must be submitted in hard copy, not e-mailed, must be double-spaced, and one-inch margins at the top, bottom, and both sides and a font of 12.  Each written assignment should include the following information, to be placed in the upper left corner of the page 1:  name, ANTH 105-1003, Assignment #, date of submission.  Any sources of information you have used in writing must be documented in the MLA Style.  Each written assignment to should 1-2 pages of actually writing.

GRADING

·         Assignments worth 50% of grade

·         Oral Presentation work 10% of grade

·         Final Essay worth 30% of grade

·         Pop up Quizzes worth 10% of grade

Plagiarism:

Plagiarism will not be tolerated in class and will result in an automatic “F” for this course. Law protects “words” that belong to another author and they must be acknowledged whenever you borrow them. This also applies to source information gathered from the internet. Although this will be discussed further in class, as a student at Gateway Community College, you must always practice academic honesty.

ADA Statement:        

Students with disabilities who may require special accommodations and support services are encouraged to notify:

1. the ADA Coordinator, Room 152
2. their instructors during the first two weeks of classes

*Instructors will provide reasonable assistance and/ or accommodations to students who have completed this process

COURSE Schedule

                                                                               

9/3                                          Discuss course layout and objectives.  Lecture: Pioneers of Modern Anthropology. Introduction to the discipline of Anthropology.

9/5                                          Quiz #1 (Modern Anthropologists). Assignment #1: "What is Going On in Anthropology Today?"  Class Activity.

9/10                                        Lecture:  Essential Concepts in Anthropology.  Discuss The Makah People involving Assignment #2.

9/12                                        Continue Lecture:  Essential Concepts in Anthropology.  Assignment #1 due.

9/17                                        Fieldwork, Ethnography, and  Ethnology. Discuss "What do Ethnographers                                                                          do?"  Class Activity (Ethnographic Interviews).

9/19                                        Lecture on Race:  Discuss  "Exploring Human Variation" Assignment #4                                                                              and the misconception of racial classification.  Assignment#2 due.

9/24                                        Lecture on Race:  Discuss  "Exploring Human Variation" Assignment #4                                                                              and the misconception of racial classification.

9/26                                        Lecture on Language.  Discuss Assignment #5 "Exploring the loss of                                                                                      Language and Efforts of Revitalization." Class Activity.  Assignment #3 due.

10/1                                        Continue Lecture on Language.

10/3                                        Psychology and Culture. Discuss "Ethnography of Virtual Worlds."  Class Activity:  Is                                                       PMS Culturally Bound?  Assignment #4 due.

10/8                                        Discuss Assignment #7:  Mythology, Art, and Rituals. Discuss "Rites of                                                                                 Passage."

10/10                                     Discuss Assignment #8:  Magic in American Sports.  Assignment #5 due.

10/15                                     Assignment # 5 due.

10/17                                     Power and Politics.  Discuss  "Kayapo Environmentalism and Cultural Survival: Indigenous Resistance."

10/22                                     Power and Politics.  Discuss  "Kayapo Environmentalism and                                                                                                  Cultural Survival: Indigenous Resistance." Assignment #6 due.

10/24                                     Lecture on Kinship and Family Dynamics. Discuss "Making a Kinship and                                                                           Genealogical Diagram." 

10/29                                     Lecture on Kinship and Family Dynamics.  Assignment #7 due.

10/31                                     Kinship and Genealogical Diagram Oral Presentations begin (A-H).                                                                                         Presentations are limited to 5 minutes.  Focus on key points.

11/5                                        Kinship and Genealogical Diagram Oral Presentations (I-P).  Assignment                                                                               #8 due

11/7                                        Kinship and Genealogical Diagram Oral Presentations (Q-Z)

11/12                                     Cultural Construction (Labeling) and Inequality. Discuss Assignment #11                                                                             "Exploring the Lived Experience."  Assignment #9 due.

11/14                                     Assignment # 10 due

                                 

11/19                                     Discuss Assignment #12 involving polygamy in the United States

11/21                                     Discuss polygamy in the United States

11/26                                     NO CLASS – Thanksgiving Recess

11/28                                     Discuss Final Essay.  Turn in First Draft.

12/3                                        Discuss Final Essay Turn in Second Draft.

12/5                                        FINAL PAPER DUE

12/10                                     Class room activity:  Identify That Concept.  Class review of the semester.

*All take home assignments will be specified in class.  It is the student’s responsibility to acquire any material and assignments they may have missed. 

Origins of Racial Classification

Here is a site that gives a description of the origins of the social concept, "race:"

http://www.understandingrace.org/history/history_trans.html

A Class Divided

Here is the website:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/generic.html?s=frol02s42cq66&continuous=1

Located Site for Question #3; Assignment 9

For students who have not answered question 3 from Assignment 9, "The Kayapo People;" please read the article ("Protesters Gird for Long Fight Over Opening Peru's Amazon")  then answer for full credit on written assignment.  Here is the website:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/world/americas/12peru.html